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Event - Dogged

Dogged

The message goes out to everyone on ADI's network. It seems to be something captured live. It's Pam Ruan, head of HR who holds a prosthetic finger up to her lips before whispering, "Everyone's pushing for transparency right now, right? Figuring out where threats are coming from and sharing. I think that should come at all levels. Let's see what Nia's talking about with Mr. Zyrian Steel, hmm?"

The camera flips around as Pam clearly creeps closer to an office door. There are muffled voices, and Pam sets the phone face up before using one hand to shove the thing under the door. The video shows a sliding picture of the office's bland ceiling for a moment before coming to a stop. The voices become much clearer.

"-down in Wolf Trap," a masculine voice is saying. Presumably, Zyrian Steel. "There's just no need for that."

"Zyrian, this ain't a negotiation." Nia Lehrer's voice is familiar to most people working at ADI at this point. They've likely heard her speak in some pre-recorded training videos at the bare minimum. Nia's tone is no nonsense and clearly on the edge of snapping in frustration. "You're not hiring us. I'm sending my people down to Wolf Trap next month. We've got evidence of those signalhead things being on the march, one down that way, your kick off for New Horizons in the park, and evidence out of there about the Lullaby Girl from some of my people."

There is silence.

"You remember her? Ava? Or Amber, it seems like. She's the one you gave us those Lucidio masks to help train our people against. Frankly, I'd be surprised if you don't remember her, Mr. S." Another drawn out pause. "You ain't been straight with me for a long time. You ain't been straight with ADI since Tawnya was Warden. You tell me you need us in Buffalo, payback for helping in Wolf Pen and Cortana and the mobile med units, and not only do half the staff come back with crab claws and whiskers, but I find out you're using us for business politics." There's venom in her tone. "Or were you just going to stay quiet about Etcher's enterprises competing with your own software companies? ADI is not your personal attack dog. You are our client. And I thought my friend. But I'm about 30 seconds away from firing you from both."

Further silence, then a heavy sigh. "And I was going to offer to send you and your staff on such a nice retreat." There's the sound of a chair being pushed back. "Warden, I think you misunderstand the nature of our relationship. You are the dogs. I am the master. I hold your leash. Or have you forgotten just how much technology I've donated to ADI over the years, how many of your systems run on things I built? We've had a mutually beneficial relationship up until now- Well… you and I have. Tawnya got to be a problem before the end, too. But I made sure that was taken care of."

"You self-aggrandizing son of a-"

"You're a much more practical woman than she ever was, even with those shiny ideals you hold so dear. You'll compromise for the greater good, to protect what's yours. Such a good Warden, looking out for her charges."

"What are you talking about? And get your hands the hell off my desk."

"Haven't you ever wondered about the title? Warden. Odd name for a leader of any organization, even one like yours. But maybe not so odd when you consider your more eldritch masters." A scoff. "The Hunt always does pick out the most oblivious avatars, doesn't it? What does a Warden do?" A beat. "She controls the monsters, Nia. Sniffs them out and contains them. And she goes after the poachers coming after her prey. Tell me, have you ever noticed how you're always picking up on threats far afield with uncanny precision. It's been getting stronger, hasn't it? Tawnya was the same way. As was her predecessor, I imagine."

"That's not- I wouldn't ever…"

"Wouldn't you, though? Every time you sent your own dogs after a threat, reveled in it, you were being such a good Warden, instilling terror in the hearts of your enemies, ADI's enemies. So many cults know who and what you are and they fear it. Fear the Warden of ADI, famed avatar of the Hunt. Even now, I know you've compromised yourself. Have you considered what that's done to you? You let that Visionary kid stay alive. I rather think that might have been the start of your slide, hmm? Making exceptions, just this once.

"Now," he continues, voice growing louder and footsteps starting toward the phone, "I realize this is a lot to take in, to think about. Why don't you do that self-reflection while I attend to other matters? You are doing good work, puppy. I need a dependable pet to take care of all those nasty pests who keep trying rituals. But no need to worry about the New Horizons launch, really. I'll just-" Zyrian pauses and everyone will have a view of a middle-aged caucasian man with dark, slightly graying hair and a beard. He's wearing khakis and a Hawaiian shirt, and he's looking down at Pam's phone.

"Well… fuck." He stomps a heeled shoe on it and the transmission ends abruptly.

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"To be honest, I'm starting to think that's a risk with anything you do once you're aware of the entities." Even directly opposing them, apparently, though she's tactful enough not to say that. "Still, might be better to avoid involving myself too much in anything likely to be useful to the eye, I suppose." Says the woman who helped and is helping with Tim's surveillance program.

"Could start with working on solutions for currently undiscovered security issues and software improvements instead? Humanity progressed really quickly in the late 20th and early 21st century, there are a lot of issues with the way your infrastructure is networked... wouldn't necessarily benefit ADI directly but it would leave less for malicious parties to exploit. Help circumvent disasters before they happen."

She studies her arm thoughtfully. "And although Copernicus might have helped with supplying some of the components for this, a lot of the design work was me and Tony. I actually made the muscle strands by hand out of fairly ordinary supplies." Yes, really, that is an actual thing you can do: coat fishing line in the right stuff, coil it, and bake it in the oven and you can get fibers that expand or contract with heat/electricity and are also ridiculously strong.

Maybe instead of going wild and taking over all the advanced tech she can help with coding innovations and lighter, stronger prosthetics? Plenty of usefulness (and money, she's gonna need that more than ever if she wants to reach her upgrade goals now) to be found there.

Perhaps later she can try for the more impressive stuff.

...She's still not entirely sure what her stance is on returning home. But she doubts it's possible at their current level of technology and understanding.

Nia rubs at a temple. "Okay. I can see... yeah. What you're proposing is a good idea, Cortana, but I ain't got the resources to back you up right now. I'm not even sure how many people are gonna be here by the end of the week. I don't know it's safe for you to be doing much while we got artifacts on the loose, either. Some of them might see you and take advantage." A pause. "More than they already have.

"I'm trying to prioritize, so what do you need at the barest minimum to get started and can you start that work remotely? Bonnie's seems like the only relatively safe place right now. Maybe stay there."

"For now? Nothing other than the laptop I already have. I'll get to work on some coding patches, blueprints, cost/benefit analysis of various designs..." She trails off, mind filling with possibilities until she can barely process what's going on around her--how do humans get anything done? No wonder Halsey's lab was so disorganized.

She blinks, refocusing on the conversation. Bonnie's huh? "I'm already on it."

"Good. Part of me thinks all of you should head that way until I get things cleaned up here." She sighs. "But I don't think they got the space. And I'm not sure how long this is gonna take. We had about 50 items down in the vault. A lot of them just looked like ordinary things, too. Most of 'em."

"Given everything, I don't think you should be trying to fix this alone." It will go badly, she speaks from personal experience. Friends, allies, and teammates are more than just assets you have to protect; their perspective can be vital for steering things away from disaster.

...She just wishes she'd understood that before she'd decided to take over the galaxy.

"I meant you off-worlders. And the ones who weren't made for fighting." Nia waves a hand. "I'm not gonna try to do it all on by my lonesome. Trust me. That's the last thing on my mind."

"I also don't think you can shield us from being involved." They were involved the moment they were brought here, unfortunately.

"Not all of you. Not for everything. Gonna need your help down in Wolf Trap, probably. But I can protect you from what's in front of me right now. I have to... I want to keep that mentality. Whatever the Hunt's done to get its hooks into me, what it's trying to use me for... protecting my people, all of you, even the ones who don't belong here, comes first."

"And if protecting your people leads to sowing terror and destruction?"

One might think that Cortana's odd, seemingly first hand wisdom might betray some deeper knowledge or connection with the beings currently trying to manipulate their lives, but that is not the case: her attempts to take the mantle had made her far more destructive than any of the entities.

As crazy and as stupid as her actions had been, she knew what motivations they had stemmed from. Why seeing John come to harm because of her had stopped her so utterly cold.

"Then I hope one of them'll put a bullet through me. The only terror and destruction I'm interested in right now is what I can do to Zyrian Steel and everything he's doing for his ritual. It's... complicated." It's always complicated. "He has done a lot of good in the world. His company. You know any of his story?"

"I don't. Mind telling me?" She glances at her surroundings, trying to figure out if there's a chair or convenient spot to make herself comfortable, since she has a feeling this might be a bit of a story.

...Ethan ended up being employed by Copernicus, didn't he? It wouldn't be the first time her interference has caused more harm than good.

"Zyrian started Copernicus because of his dad," Nia explains. "He jumped to where he is now with the Human-Artifice Liaison. HAL. It's a software people... everywhere use in mechanized prosthetics. It's one of those things that made complex prosthetics possible. His dad lost an arm and a leg when Zy--Zyrian--was just a teen. Some kind of accident. He never wanted to talk much about it, but I always suspected it was supernatural.

"Zyrian saw how hard his dad had it, how... little the products available could do for him, and he decided he was gonna learn how to make things better, to help folk who needed and wanted it. Not just his dad, but everyone else who was disabled. He told me he started his company because he felt like it was his calling, to fuse man and machine and find a way to make them better."

"HAL, huh. Any Daves gone mysteriously missing?" Look, the joke was there. She had to make it.

She frowns. "Gotta wonder what made him get into the whole 'ending the world' scene. Tired of boring old conventional reality? Decided it'd be better to just replace humanity entirely instead of just augmenting it? Or maybe he just discovered he'd rather hurt people than help them."

"Ours. From Accounting." Nia sighs.

"I don't know what twisted him. Had to be something along the way, though. You don't go from being a decent kid to-to this over night. Maybe something while he was working on one of his tech projects. Entities can worm in anywhere they get the chance."

"Oh, right. Forget I made that joke."

She sighs, or at least makes a really convincing mimicry of one. "Guess it'll just have to be another unsolved mystery. I'm certainly not gonna take the time to ask him."

"If I find him, I might. Right before I put a bullet through him." There's an edge of something vicious in her tone.

"You'll have to find him before I manage to wring his neck." She's not ...entirely sure that Nia should be letting herself go hunt people down for revenge, given her situation, but if anyone deserves it it'd be Zyrian.

Nia inclines her head. "May the best woman win. Now... best I be getting back to dealing with the problems we got currently. Stay safe, Cortana."

"Oh I plan to." She had to, okay?

Antyway, Cortana grins, waving as she turns to leave. "Bye Nia."

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Event - Dogged

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