peterverse | lung, meet rewind

msrewind posting in

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

thinkering

"I'm looking over the bot summary; do you two want to see it before I send it up?"

From:

mxglam

"Sure."

From:

msrewind

"I think I could probably recite it in my sleep by now, but I guess it won't hurt."

From:

thinkering

The bot projects it. It's written in polite bot style but covers all the key points and belabors the reasoning for all the things Piggot's likely to complain about.

From:

mxglam

"That looks pretty good," Glam says after reading it all, and Rewind nods in approval.

From:

thinkering

"Sending," says the bot.

From:

mxglam

"Alright!" Pause. "Now what?"

From:

thinkering

"Well, we wait for Armsmaster to answer, I guess."

From:

mxglam

"Right, of course."

From:

acanofworms

And before Glam has completed saying the word 'course' Armsmaster's reply has arrived, asking them to meet with him and Piggot in Conference Room 03.

From:

thinkering

"Showtime."

To the conference room.

From:

acanofworms

Armsmaster - or rather, Colin, in civilian gear - and Piggot are waiting there, sitting at the head of the long table.

"We looked over your strategic considerations, and both deemed it acceptable."

From:

msrewind

"Yes," she says under her breath.

From:

thinkering

"Thank you. I'll rearrange our schedules so all the requisite Wards are fresh then."

From:

acanofworms

"Not all," Colin says. "There are some slight changes I wish to make. Namely, if enough Wards and heroes suddenly stop patrolling right before the appropriate time, that might tip Lung and the gang off. We will need to adjust their patrolling schedules and routes together in order to seem to not have been notified."

From:

thinkering

"I'll email you a proposal?"

From:

acanofworms

He shakes his head. "I'm already here, we can do it now and get this over with in time for everyone to know what they'll do and be rested before the operation tonight."

From:

thinkering

"Okay..." A bot projects onto the table the current schedule and she starts suggesting swaps.

From:

acanofworms

Colin makes some other suggestions and asks questions about certain Wards.

From:

thinkering

And eventually they should have something worked out that doesn't look weird.

From:

mxglam

That evening, close to the appropriate time, the heroes are inconspicuously patrolling or in hidden positions far enough away from the meeting point that the thugs-failing-to-pretend-to-be-civilians keeping a lookout don't notice them.

Glam conjures a Rewind-copy inside her armor, connected to the bot network.

From:

thinkering

And the bot shows Rewind, hanging back safely, a projection inside her helmet of what she'd be seeing if she were in the copy suit; and bounces her body language to the copy suit.

From:

mxglam

And Glam does their part in expecting that the copy will act like Rewind does, because of course it will. They also have access to several screens, most of them blanks, that are meant to become occupied by appropriate feeds when need be.

From:

msrewind

Rewind arrives at the arranged meeting place (well, her copy does) in her suit. There are thugs waiting for her, all of them with covered faces and pretty well-armed.

"Get rid of the suit," one of them calls.

"But wh-" she offers some token resistance, and the thug points a gun at her and she says, "Alright, alright." The suit is gone, pretend-booped ten minutes into the past.

"Now we wait."

"For what?" Rewind asks.

"Ten minutes."