lung, meet rewind

[msrewind]

She gets the note just before lunch. She's in the PHQ in less than twenty minutes, then she knocks on Piggot's door politely.

Comments

[alicornucopia]

"Come in."

[msrewind]

She slides into Piggot's room silently, takes a seat, and carefully places a small wooden box and a note on the desk in front of Piggot.

[alicornucopia]

"...What is it, Rewind?"

[msrewind]

"I believe," she says in a strained voice, "that my parents have been kidnapped by Lung. This note and the contents of this box are the reason why I believe that."

[alicornucopia]

Piggot examines the note.

[peterxy]

It's handwritten, and it contains a time and address, as well as the words 'come alone' and 'do not inform the heroes.'

[alicornucopia]

She glances up at Rewind, then opens the box.

[peterxy]

There's a pinky finger inside it, neatly cut and cauterised. Its nail is polished and painted a soft pink, and it's small and feminine.

[alicornucopia]

Piggot puts the cover back on the box and looks Rewind in the eye. "You think it's your mother's."

[msrewind]

"Yes."

[alicornucopia]

"We can't accumulate a reputation for responding to threats like this. It encourages the tactic."

[msrewind]

"In his case it isn't a threat, it's his thing! It's how he recruits other people, he hurts their family and friends."

[alicornucopia]

"Making his thing an effective way to draw heroes to his chosen battlefield violates the same principle."

[msrewind]

"He only knows my secret identity, it's not like he can make this threat more than once!"

[thinkering]

"If he -"

"Send a copy," chirps Rewind's shoulderbot in Lorica's voice. "Bots can feed what's going on into her helmet and she can virtual reality it with them feeding reactions to the copy suit, Glam can dupe her power."

"...That's very clever, Lorica," says Piggot, pinching the bridge of her nose, "but Lung is not operating by the convention according to which it is unthinkable to demand someone unmask."

[msrewind]

"See, there are ways to not have my parents tortured and killed by the maniac! Can't we at least, like, have a meeting? Before just dismissing my parents out of hand? They didn't sign up for this, and it works just as well to make our point if we kick that fucker's ass when he tries to blackmail us. I already did the clever thing and actually told you guys about it instead of doing what he wanted."

[alicornucopia]

"The robot cannot, I believe, control a copy of you outside your suit, which Lung may well demand to see."

[msrewind]

"I'm sure Glam can deal with that, right?" she asks the shoulderbot.

[thinkering]

"Copies can do body language. Long as the suit's there to feed video."

[msrewind]

"There you have it, then," she says, as if the matter's settled.

[thinkering]

"I will hear a proposal," Piggot says. "More detailed than 'continue to use Glam for everything'."

"My workshop," shoulderbot tells Rewind, "we'll hammer it out."

[msrewind]

"Fine. Thank you, ma'am."

[alicornucopia]

Piggot nods stiffly.

[msrewind]

She makes her way to Lorica's workshop.

[thinkering]

Lorica's got a shoulderbot-view of the note and box up on the wall and she's scrolling through information that's going past on the wall. "Glam'll be here in a sec. Might want to tap Dad too."