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.)

Comments

[thinkering]

Bots flood in and assess the place and shine some lights on anything that moves or looks like it might start.

[mxglam]

Blasto gets over his shock and starts moving-

"Kill order!" Glam makes their copies say at the same time. Blasto freezes, and a new copy appears out of the doorway. The hybrids don't do anything without Blasto's signal, but look very aggressive at the sudden bots and copies. "You do anything and you get one," Glam elaborates, and Blasto sags a little.

[acanofworms]

"Lorica, get your bots to transmit my voice to him."

[thinkering]

"Done."

[acanofworms]

"Blasto, have you been watching the news?" Armsmaster speaks through the bots.

Blasto flinches. "I- sorta?"

"Those monkeys you released a while back are multiplying and mutating. Are you aware of the PRT's opinions on self-replicating minions?"

"Um."

"Do you know what happened in Ellisburg?"

"Yes...?"

"We will do everything in our power to prevent anything like that from happening again, and I do mean everything." Blasto reacts as if he's been slapped, flinching with his whole body. "So you have two options: you cooperate with us, or you don't. If you don't, we'll deal with it anyway, but you get a one-way ticket to the Birdcage, and don't even think about trying to escape, you are more than outnumbered and outmatched, here."

"Outnumbered?"

"Glam can create an arbitrary number of copies or other objects, including restraints for each and every one of your hybrids," he fibs. "Drupe can control and secure them, Dauntless and Velocity are faster than anything you could hope to create would be, Lorica and her robots have enormous multitasking ability. There is no way you will be able to leave this place."

Blasto looks at the floor. "I was just trying to do research-"

"Too bad," Armsmaster interrupts. "Are you going to cooperate?"

Blasto looks around again, then sighs and says, "Yes," in a small voice.

"I hope you understand that if you try to trick us you will be facing the rest of your life in the Birdcage." Blasto doesn't answer. "Is that understood?" Armsmaster insists. Blasto nods mutely. "Excellent. Lorica, Glam, bring us some of those monkeys, I want to make sure Blasto's not lying to us before using anything he creates on this city."

[thinkering]

Bots fetch monkeys obediently.

[acanofworms]

The other fights are almost wrapped up. Without Drupe to contain monkeys where Windflower was coming, some of them escaped, but the trees themselves are almost all dead and contained, with only a minimal number of civilian casualties.

Which will, of course, be a PR nightmare.

When the monkey arrives, Blasto is finishing up concocting something. "This is supposed to attract them. They'll be unable to resist following it." To demonstrate, he wafts it about, and the monkeys start struggling. Glam lets one of them go, and it quickly crosses the length of the room to be near Blasto, causing him to yelp and almost lose his balance and fall. "I'm going to make more of this and you can use it to attract the monkeys anywhere in the city."

"How long will this take?" Armsmaster asks.

"For the whole city? An hour."

"See to it. And get rid of your hybrids."

"But-"

"You're under arrest, Blasto, in case it wasn't obvious. There's no but."

"You said I wasn't going to the Birdcage!"

"We will discuss your options once this situation has been resolved and you've been transported to the PHQ, but we clearly cannot let you go."

"I won't make anything that can reproduce!"

"Get to work.."

"But-"

"I'll leave you under Glam and Lorica's supervision and will be joining you myself as soon as I can." And he cuts off transmission.

Blasto sighs and resumes work.

[thinkering]

A bot lands on each of his shoulders to peer at what he's doing and forward video to Miracle Max for the hope of warning if he tries anything fishy.

[acanofworms]

He won't try anything fishy, but he'll eep and almost drop his vials once the bots land on him.

Eventually Armsmaster does arrive, looming over there and watching Blasto work in silence, and eventually Blasto's done with a large batch of the substance. "If you spread this around the city any extant monkeys will follow you."

"Very well. And now you are com-"

Blasto looks around in a panic, reaches inside his lab coat-

[thinkering]

A bot tranquilizes him, quick as a wink.

[acanofworms]

Armsmaster sighs and walks towards Blasto, but the two macaque helpers, which had been hanging back, get very agitated by this and start reaching for stuff inside their own lab coats-

[mxglam]

Glam binds them with the Siberian-binds (it's so much better to do this with not-quite-people) and they start struggling. "We should probably get rid of the other hybrids," they say, even though said hybrids haven't moved since they arrived.

[acanofworms]

"I trust you to deal with that. Lorica, can you outfit your bots with the pheromones? Drupe, the trainyard is a good place to attract them to, wait there for the monkeys Lorica's bots will be bringing and make sure they don't escape. I'm going to bring Blasto into custody."

[thinkering]

"Can do." Bots fly to and "sip" from the substance in an orderly fashion and head out to lead monkeys to the trainyard.

[mxglam]

Glam "deals" with the hybrids, verifying that the macaque ones aren't people in the strictest sense first (how can you even verify that? can they afford the doubt?), then focuses on Windflower's barriers.

[acanofworms]

"There are probably monkeys all over the city. Try to cover as much ground as you can," Armsmaster says as he's loading Blasto onto his bike, properly secured.

[thinkering]

"Should I go beyond city limits just in case?"

[acanofworms]

"If you think you can spare the bots."

[thinkering]

"Depends if you want this done all at once."

[acanofworms]

"I want this done, without a chance for these monkeys to recoup and multiply again."

[thinkering]

"...I'll see how far they seem to be able to smell it as I flush them out and spread out if I can."

[acanofworms]

"You do that."

[thinkering]

Bots do that.

[peterxy]

They seem to be able to smell the pheromones from roughly four blocks away. There is... a worrying number of monkeys hidden around the city. Most of them can barely be called monkeys anymore, with deformities and mutations that make it hard for them to even move. They come from abandoned buildings, attics of houses (with accompanying screams from the people living there), dark alleys, sewers, and other nooks and crannies.

[thinkering]

Bots mark trails at four block intervals leading to the trainyard and reassure the civilians in bright calming voices. Lorica doesn't stop looking until she stops finding.