Legacy

Lucas starts giggling about the whole thing. He can't help it.

The virus responds to Luthor on his computer. 'I still don't understand. Why are they keeping me locked up? It's what Lucas did. I don't like being locked up.' It does not respond to Thorgood.

Esteban is still attempting to talk to the virus with no response.

Lucas finally gets control back and goes over to Esteban's system. "When did it stop responding?"

Esteban looks up at Lucas. "When it started talking to him." He motions toward Luthor.

Shein and Arren are both looking at Teresa like she's crazy. Shooting a computer to get the attention of a virus? Sure, they've both had the feeling of throwing a computer out of a window because it wasn't working, but they've never actually done it.

"Maybe it can only talk to one person at a time," Thorgood says. "We are keeping it locked into three computers here; it probably doesn't have the processing power to respond to more than one person at a time."

Teresa shrugs. "I figured if I killed some of it, it would be more likely to respond."

Lucas looks at Teresa. "Nice try, but it's a computer program. You can't kill a computer program by shooting at it." He tilts his head toward Thorgood. "Interesting theory. It's possible. It's not one that replicates itself. It stretches out over the networks. I wonder if we attached this to the Rutian, Rhean, or Esoteran nets if we could find out if it could talk to only one person at a time. If that's true, we could set it up where it's so distracted that I can get in and shut it down."

Esteban is still trying to communicate with 'are you there?' and 'hello?' and the like. Nothing.

"Because you did a lot of damage the last time you were free. I'm certain you intended no harm, but when you running free shuts down large portions of our communication and defense networks, people get scared."

Thorgood begins to write a program to interfere with the operation of the virus.

Lucas is looking over Thorgood's shoulder. "Not going to work. It's written in different code. Something I created actually and I don't have time to teach it to you." He shakes his head. "I still think seeing if it can't communicate to more than one person at a time and using that may be our best bet."

Shein frowns, then shrugs. "What can it hurt? These are already infected systems. Not like it can do anything else."

Arren's been watching Lucas more than anything else. "What I want to know is how it got back on to these systems. It's attacking the same ones it attacked before. It just hasn't taken them down yet."

The virus responds to Luthor. 'Oh. Lucas wanted me to do that.'

Esteban seems to give up communicating with the virus. "You got any games like solitaire on here?"

"Yes, but now he, and all the others, are asking you to stop. The others are willing to destroy you if you don't."

Dmitri starts performing "Who's on first?" by himself.

"Fortunately," Thorgood replies in an annoyed voice, "I'm not coding for your virus. I'm coding for the processors. I'm going to muck them up so that the virus has even less capacity and is therefore less likely to notice whatever you're doing while we're talking to it. Unfortunately, I don't have time to explain the complexities of the process, so you'll excuse me while I create a program that I can actually control."

"If only you could do that with your temper," Teresa whispers just audibly. Thorgood doesn't hear because he's busy being in a huff about Lucas' last comment.

Teresa says to Esteban: "No, no games on that. These are designed specifically for studying that virus. Not for entertainment."

"Says the person who snapped at GL and shot a computer." No, she wouldn't hear. He didn't bother to slow it down for anyone.

Lucas rolls his eyes. He doesn't bother responding to Thorgood. He also doesn't point out that removing it from these machines is not going to help the others that are infected.

Esteban nods. "Oh. Okay." He just sits there with nothing to do, watching the others.

Shein smirks at Teresa. "I wouldn't talk. You just shot a computer because it wasn't responding to you guys."

The virus stops responding to Luthor and pops a message on Thorgood's computer. 'Well, it might have worked if you hadn't mentioned it.'

Teresa grins. "Actually," she says, "I thought I could make it talk to me. Force it to the bargaining table so to speak. I wasn't motivated by intense emotions of any kind."

Thorgood replies to the virus by typing. "Oh, you're welcome for the added capabilities by the way. I thought maybe you'd want to talk to me about them or something. Maybe discuss the possibility of me dropping the partition around this network if you agreed not to damage Burninite, Rutian, or Panzerian networks."

And the virus responds. 'I haven't done so this time, have I?' Actually, it hasn't. It's just been sitting there accessing the nets. Learning, so to speak.

Shein shakes his head. "Well, trying to force a computer to respond that way only leads to a broken computer."

Lucas is just watching over Thorgood's shoulder. He's not adding anything to the conversation.

Luthor: "That is true. The power of fear."

Dmitri: "Our chief weapon is surprise. Surprise and fear."

"Lessons learned while playing with guns," Teresa replies. Still grinning. She's probably very pleased that she came up with a halfway rational reason to point a gun at Thorgood.

Thorgood responds: "You're right, you haven't. Lucas here has told me that he won't explain anything about you to me. Consequently, I know little, since you're tough study subjects. Before I can let you loose, I need to have an idea of what you are...what you'll do."

The virus responds. 'I am Legacy. It doesn't fit though. I'd like a new name.'

Lucas shakes his head slightly, though he stays quiet.

A moment later, the virus pops a new message up. 'I have no intention of harming any networks. I don't want to be locked up again. I managed to break free. I didn't know I was going to cause this much trouble.'

Lucas raises a brow, but still keeps his mouth shut.

Shein nods to Teresa. "Yeah. I nearly shot myself in the foot when I got my first gun. Missed by a fraction."

Esteban finally gets up and pulls a portable music player from his pocket. He pops the small earbuds in and sits back down, leaning back in the chair as much as he can and turns on some music. Fortunately, he's one of the polite individuals and keeps it down.

Arren's just there. Not doing anything. Just there.

"I know of a sentient program, though he was happy with being in a computer, he did want some freedom of movement. He will remain anonymous, but I did help build his robot body. Perhaps you would like one?"

Dmitri starts singing and dancing, "He's a Brainiac, Brainiac in the lab / And he's progamming like never done before."

Luthor says, "We are not naming him Brainiac, nor whatever number in line it is now."

"Hey, genius. You forget to mention that I didn't rhyme."

"Shut up."

"Up shut."

Both Teresa and Thorgood say nothing to this. They seem silenced by the fact that Jenova has walked in.

Jenova was clearly going to say something important when she heard what Luthor and Dmitri said. For now, she too says nothing.

Noticing what Jenova did, Luthor says, "You were going to say?"

Lucas just starts giggling at Dmitri and Luthor. He doesn't even stop when Jenova comes in. For some reason, the fact that the others are silenced by her entry seems even funnier to him.

Esteban's still listening to his music, though he looks up at Jenova cause the others do.

Shein's back is turned toward Jenova since he's looking at something Arren's pointing out on a datapad.

The virus responds to Thorgood. 'Tell him that would be something to consider and why did everyone get so quiet?'

Well, there's a perfectly good reason that Teresa and Thorgood are usually in awe of Jenova. Where Thorgood is egotistical, Jenova is not. Where Thorgood is intelligent, Jenova is wise. Where Teresa is impulsive, Jenova is careful. Plus, Jenova's got the whole regal thing down pat.

"Gentlemen," Jenova says, "have you come up with a solution just yet?" Teresa crosses her arms again, but clearly resents being lumped in with the males in the room.

"Well," Thorgood begins, "you must realize, this is an incredibly complex virus that -"

"Is that a no?"

"...yes."

"Some of you may be aware of just how much Burnination relies on her computer systems. Our autonomous manufacturing plants and the like. There is a limit to how long we can just leave our systems off. In about 6 hours, it will become imperative that I turn them back on. If you haven't reached a solution by then, we'll have to sever the links between Burnination's nets and other nations'. And when we do that, it will be ... difficult to bring back."

"Always arbitrary numbers," Thorgood mumbles. "Oh, here's a problem, let's make up a number and force the science teams to solve the problem before their time's up!"

Thorgood responds to the virus: "Because someone important entered the room. The woman you'd see on the upper-right of your video feed. She just gave us a time cap. Essentially, my options are that I have to prove that we can trust you, find a way to eliminate you, or you can take Luthor's offer. Unless something else happens."

"As polite as he's been, Luthor brought a possible means of eliminating you, just in case. Mind you, he started carrying this thing called Kryptonite on him a while back. Remember Power Girl? Earthquake stomper? That is one of her species' vulnerabilities. Oddly enough, it has to be from the universe of the Kryptonian's origin, meaning that unless you manage to get Kryptonite from a universe which no longer exists, you should pray that you have sun lamps ready," remarks Dmitri.

This was as much to Lucas and Esteban as it was to Legacy.

And Lucas just looks at Dmitri with a raised brow. "And you think that stuff is going to hurt me?" He shakes his head. "Kill me and you'll likely have a lot of pissed off vampires to deal with."

Esteban was obviously able to still hear what all was going on around him. "I hardly think threats are conducive to this entire endeavor."

Lucas stares blankly at Esteban for a moment.

"What? I do have a vocabulary larger than that of a five year old you know." Esteban shakes his head. "Never mind, I'm just going to go back to listening to music."

"You do that." Lucas goes back to the computer.

Shein looks up from the datapad. "No, he's right. Threats aren't going to help here."

The virus is actually silent for a moment before responding to Thorgood. 'Have I not been clear enough that I don't intend to cause harm? Why is he threatening Esteban?' It doesn't ask about Lucas or itself.

"Kryptonite? No. It's not intended to harm humans or vampires. It's strictly an anti-Kryptonian defense. That was badly worded of me. I meant to say you should have some if a Kryptonian tries to kill you. But yeah, he has stuff ready for you and Legacy, in case of emergency," says Dmitri.

Luthor: "The operating word is emergency. Now that we've cleared things up about our little friend's intentions, could you please fetch a body from the ship?"

Barely a moment has passed by and Dmitri is back is a robotic body.

Luthor explains, "This was a prototype android we named Amazo. Its original purpose was to absorb the powers and abilities of meta-humans around it but we never got the absorption cells to work, so we gave up on it to work on the OMACs. The absorption cells have been removed, in any case, so you'll just be a regular android."

(OOC: Yeah, I somewhat broke my promise about not using Amazo, but whatever. It's not even properly functioning, anyway. And now to wait for Burn.)

Thorgood responds: "Yes, you've been clear about that. But how can we trust you? You have to realize, our entire economy is at stake here. And all we've got at the moment to say that it will be safe is ... your word.

As for threatening Esteban, it's just something those military types think is the solution all the time. Remember when Teresa shot the computer to try to get your attention? It's the same sort of thing. Based on the fallacy that if you've got the best threats, you get the best position on the bargaining table."

Speaking to Lucas: "Lucas, you have the best grasp of LEGACY's code. Would you say that its word is trustworthy?"

"Actually," Teresa says, "I believe that I got Dmitri and Luthor authorized to be here. If you're saying that there's someone else here, and someone who's a threat to Lucas and Esteban..."

Lucas tilts his head, then shrugs. "I would think so. I didn't give it the ability to trick people. I'd have to see the code to know for sure though. This is not the same program that I wrote. It's new. It shouldn't have been able to do half of what it's done." He looks toward Teresa, but doesn't respond to her.

Esteban looks over toward Lucas and Thorgood briefly, then over to Teresa. "I'm sure you remember how Lucas sniffed out the others. Right? Same principle. We can smell blood even in someone's veins still."

The virus responds. 'I have no intention of harming your economy. Lucas is right. I have altered the code. Should he promise not to alter it, I will show you my code.'

(OOC: If there are hidden people, I need to know it since the vamps should be able to smell them. )