blasto, meet official opinions on self-replicating minions

[peterxy]

The PRT catches wind of a strange increase in disappeared domestic animals in the downtown area. Given that the people who live there are the rich and powerful, this is clearly a problem that needs to be investigated and solved immediately. The PRT, of course, agrees that this is of utmost importance, and not just because of precedent about mass abductions of pets, of course not, why would you think that, they are so very worried about Fido, even Scion recognizes the merits of rescuing lost pets.

(Lorica's asked to maybe keep a few more eyes there than she has been.)

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[peterxy]

Monkeys, trees, monkeys emerging from trees, and trees emerging from monkeys abound. Dead monkeys are carted back to trees by other monkeys for raw biomatter, and these monkeys are pretty dense with lots of redundant biology, so they apparently can duplicate even without having to eat anything.

And there are still so many.

[thinkering]

"Look, this isn't solving the underlying problem, which is that Blasto made these things. This - this outbreak is a disaster and he'd need a fragment of one of the organisms to start a dozen more just like it. He was using pheremones last time we busted him, he may still be doing that, can we - track those and find him and get him a ticket to the Birdcage?"

[acanofworms]

"If these things were on purpose he already has a ticket to the Birdcage or worse," Armsmaster says between blows with a dozen monkeys. "If you have a suggestion on how to track him I'd love to hear it."

[thinkering]

"If we can catch a monkey alive Miracle Max might be able to reverse-engineer the pheromones and get somewhere with that?"

[acanofworms]

"Not a bad idea, think you can get one to him?"

[thinkering]

"Yeah, if I can get one alone so bots can converge on it and lasso it."

[mxglam]

"I could help!"

[acanofworms]

"Then do it."

[thinkering]

"I want enough real bots carrying the thing that if you glitch again it doesn't fall," Lorica tells Glam, "but yeah, help me catch..." The swarm picks one. "That. And mind you keep an eye on the containments for the trees Windflower's killing."

[acanofworms]

"Glitch?"

[mxglam]

"There's a fuzzy limit on how much stuff I can have out at a time, but it's in the several dozens so don't need to worry. And I'm keeping an eye on them," they say, and provide them with a Glam copy they're controlling to help catch the monkey.

...why would they even need that. "I'm just gonna conjure binds made out of something really hard," they say, popping that copy and creating striped binds around the monkey, gagging it, blindfolding it, and tying it up.

[thinkering]

"Thank you. Can you put it in a bag or something, I don't want to discover it shits tree seeds halfway to Max's."

[mxglam]

"Done!"

It is done.

[thinkering]

Robots zoom the monkey to HQ for Max to vivisect or whatever it is he'll wind up doing.

[mxglam]

Glam continues aiding in the various fights, containing monkeys with Siberian-binds so they won't escape and so Windflower will be able to kill them. ...do they need to? Maybe if they squeeze a bit... nope, bad idea, tree sprouting, be on fire.

The bots reach HQ without further trouble - apparently whichever mechanism the monkeys use to kill themselves or become trees cannot be activated if they're bound and gagged. That, or this particular specimen lacks that ability.

[thinkering]

The specimen is handed off to Max, who does horrific things to it as fast as he can.

[peterxy]

And after about half an hour, during which the heroes slowly but surely continue taking down those trees and chasing monkeys and reducing their numbers, he'll have something to show for his work: while it's not possible to reproduce pheromones themselves, it's possible to manufacture something that mimics the monkeys' receptors and indicates the presence of said pheromones in even pretty small quantities in the air.

[thinkering]

"Glam, can you get me pheromone-detectors that interface with bots?"

[mxglam]

"Sure, what are they like?"

[thinkering]

The shoulderbot transmits what Max came up with.

[mxglam]

It is, apparently, a chemical substance that reacts to the monkeys' pheromones. Glam invents a bullshit detector that uses the chemical, and starts outfitting bots with it.

[thinkering]

And bots - those that can be spared from the gradually shrinking fight with the trees - go on a Blasto hunt.

[peterxy]

There seem to be a few pockets of faint pheromones in some localized spots, including a few that are other hives similar to the giant tree they just found. These hives seem to be mostly content in just existing, at least for now.

[thinkering]

Bots monitor them and notify the others so Windflower can be sent in to kill them. That all?

[peterxy]

Yyyy- no. There's a trail, more recent and concentrated, leading Northwest...