<<< The Quest for Spiffy Stuffs: Attempt #1, [Any Brotherhood]

Time of day: 12:00 AM
Place in the time-line: A few hours after Disintegration

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Any other night, Taylor would be asleep by this time. All the excitement of the concert, plus the task of reigning in a sentinel, PLUS the fact that ever since he'd 'joined' the Brotherhood, his bedtime had been a respectable 11PM should have had him flopping into his bed the first chance he got. Tonight though, was a completely different story. The reason for countless sleepless nights had been reintroduced to Taylor. NOW he had something to tinker and play with. Well, he had the information necessary for the tinkering. It was a wonderful thing, having a flash drive of unreasonable capacity. After he'd lost control of the sentinel (the anti-cyberpath measures must have been a new improvement, that had never happened before), he'd taken the time to first hide himself, then hack the robot again, using the time it took to disperse the crowd to copy information and weapon schematics.

He had information on several mutants with earth or sonic abilities, and a few with super-strength. These specific powers were at hand because that was what the pilot was pulling up at the time, considering the destruction caused by wielders of all three, this would most definitely be useful, if not for Magneto and the brotherhood, than for himself. He'd wanted for a very long time to start building machines of his own and yes, he had put in studying hours, but the info he now posessed would jump him months or years ahead in terms of personal study. This was good, because the Brotherhood seemed to be lacking in the library department. People had spent years developing the technology the sentinels would command.

He'd spent ten minutes taking it from them.

Taylor carefully and quietly punched in the code for the hideous clown head at the entrance to the murderworld. He'd never been given the code; he'd been given orders not to leave the establishment at all, actually. But it only took him a short while to observe the system while somebody else was returning from their privledged excursions. Feeding cameras loops of an empty hall as he passed, Taylor took a direct path towards the training rooms. As he put some distance between him and the only entrance or exit from the Murderworld, Taylor simply continuedNobody could blame him of sneaking out now, unless they'd physially went into his room. He'd fed loops of him sleeping into the cameras positioned about his room.

As long as he'd been in the Murderworld, the random training robots had sat in the same spots, partially destroyed. Not once had they been used. Not once had they even been moved from their dust-covered positions. Surely, they wouldn't be missed. Taylor plugged his flash drive into an ipod wall charger so he could access the files, heaved some tool boxes closer to the robots, and set to work dismantling the nearest one, the only one that didn't resemble a current member of th Brotherhood. Any fatigue was ignored and forgotten. Taylor had new toys.

Sleep is for pussies.

Scanning the machine for information, Taylor started his deconstruction at the machine's head (not a difficult task, since it was already damaged), where there was a few devices that fit close enough to the description he was looking for. Jara's robo-clone lay off to the side, ignored while Saint's lay right next to the young cyberpath, quietly waiting it's turn. Taylor was looking for something to focus energy (of whatever sort) and discharge it. He would also need a power source, but that could wait 'till later. He wasn't sure how much power the device would need, but he would start with a car battery or something first before looking for something more compact and portable.

Having removed the outer shell, Taylor removed the bits of machinery that lay behind the painted metal of the robot's 'eyes'. They were made to emit various rays and waves of electromagnetism. For the sake of progress, they would have to do. Taylor would have to examine them carefully before trying to make his own, and it would take some time and study before he'd be able to figure out how to accommodate different forms of energy.

Maybe he should have taken the time to get familiar with the other Brotherhood members, maybe they could have helped him out. Or maybe not. He wasn't exactly a trusted member just yet, and he wasn't sure if the others would want him with a weapon or any sort. Either way, he was on his own for now.

Removing some extra cables from the robot's arm, Taylor detached the machine's power source from the rest of the robot, aimed one of the 'eyes' at a wall and fixed the cables to the battery. There was no CPU attached to issue commands so Taylor, after making sure he was out of the way in case of explosion or any other unfortunate accident, tapped the circuitry and pulled the mental trigger.

A thin but vibrant bolt of electricity shot from the eye. though it was a rather small bolt, it was still surprisingly powerful, considering the size of the device that emitted it. It did have the unfortunate side effect of shorting the power in the room, but Taylor would cope. He was already considering how best to affix the eye to a handle of some sort as he mentally scanned the room for a light.

The night was relatively young. Eleven o’clock, that was all. Amelia Voght, the red headed teleporter of the Acolytes and Brotherhood had returned earlier from a small reconnaissance mission. She had been out in the city spying on some executives. They were having a late night meeting drafting plans for a major merger. One of the future plans for the Acolytes was to strike and hopefully cripple major economic institutions that the humans relied so much upon. Those men, earlier that night, were toiling away on something that they believed would make them richer than they were. They had no idea that the mutants wanted to pull the rug out from under their feet and reduce them all to hut dwellers.

She returned to the compound and drifted under the hideous clown’s head. She floated along the walkway and entered the building itself. Within the hallways of the Brotherhood headquarters Amelia rematerialized into her solid form. She stretched her arms and arched her back. Her footsteps carried softly down the hall as the walked toward the kitchen and made herself a cup of tea. Amelia had been in her vapor form the entire time she was spying on the executives. It was time to relax. She’d be spying more the next day or attending to other Acolyte business.

Amelia sipped her tea from an old and stained coffee mug that bore a grinning clown’s face. It was another bit of Murderworld memorabilia that had lingered. She made her way toward her dormitory when she passed a door that was slightly ajar. It was Koen Taylor’s room. He was the young boy the Brotherhood were now keeping. At one point he was a student at Xavier’s School. The Brotherhood usually kept a close eye on him, or all they knew he was a spy for Cyclops and his comrades.

The boy had settled in quickly. His dormitory was quickly transformed into a workshop of sorts. There were bits of wires and computer components about the room. Mechanical contraptions were everywhere. It seemed natural, they fit with his powers. The boy was a cyberpath. He’d also picked up a couple of the robot duplicates of the Brotherhood members. Koen took out some parts and began working again. It was from one of the robot copies that a spark of electricity shot from the eye. This coincided with the power shorting out in the room. Amelia jumped in surprise. She heard Koen clamoring around, probably looking for a light. “Those are a bit more dangerous than TinkerToys, I suppose,” Amelia said.

Way to show your age, woman. The kid’s probably only heard of TinkerToys on Wikipedia, she thought.

There has to be a light somewhere in here...

Stepping over the robotic bodies, and tripping over something else, Taylor gave a frustrated huff before turning to Robo-Saint. Even in the dark, Taylor's eyes focused on the machine while the look-alike, as per his mental commands, activated what was supposed to mimic Saint's psionic blades. Except it didn't have a mind, and thus lacked the ability to generate any sort of psionic energy. Taylor couldn't identify the energy used, but his primary concern had been met. A somewhat dim light partially illuminated the room.

Taylor paused to examine the wall. There was no significant physical damage, at least not enough for him to see besides a few scorch marks. Well, he wasn't supposed to be actually making a weapon yet anyways. Right now, he was learning. He could see the materials and devices used in the eye before him, but their functions and meaning was all in the little flash drive. Maybe he should try to build a small-scale replica of the sentinel's weapons. It was one thing to have schematics and plans for something, but it was much nicer to actually have it. Or at least something similar.

He'd just started considering how exactly he was to fashion a weapon of some sort out of his limited materials when a voice interrupted his train of thought. As he turned to see a woman he recognized as an Acolyte (What was her name again? Amy?), he felt a slight pang of fear, like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar. She didn't sound like she was very angry with him (tinker toys?), but if Magneto or Jason found out he was messing with weaponry, they might assume he was preparing for a revolt or something.

"Did these belong to somebody?" In all honesty, he didn't care all that much. The amount of dust he'd had to brush off the robots was enough to suffocate a small child.

The darkened room slowly grew brighter. One of the robot duplicates, the one of Saint, was emitting a glow from its mechanical hand. It was supposed to be a representation of Saint’s psionic knives. It looked much like the hypnotist’s blade and for all Amelia knew it worked the same way. The robots were constructed before she had joined Magneto’s new army. The robotic mutants looked like perfect replicas of the originals. They could have been used for distractions or be possibly used as booby traps. Amelia hadn’t fully explored the compound but she was certain there were many things, mechanical and otherwise, lying in wait for foolish travelers.

It also seemed that her words startled Koen Taylor. His eyes widened slightly. Was he simply startled or was he trying to hide something? "Did these belong to somebody?" he asked.

Amelia glanced around the room. There were parts everywhere and the two duplicates had been dissected and reconnected in a variety of ways. “No. They were property of the previous management and now for all I care they are up for grabs,” Amelia replied and then took a sip from her tea. She leaned against the door frame and motioned toward the robo-Saint with the mug. “I’m guessing they have abilities comparable to the powers of the originals. With an army of these robots a young cyberpath could do a lot of damage. Controlling them like puppets while his captors are sleeping; using them unwisely when there were greater threats to the cause.”

The boy, 1337, whatever that meant, was technically a prisoner of the Brotherhood. He’d stumbled in and not allowed to leave. He was once a student at Xavier’s and for all they knew he could have been a spy. He could be planning a bloody little coup. Each of the members of the Brotherhood and Acolytes were given instructions to keep an eye on him. His unofficial keeper was Jason Matthews, the cutter.

Taylor felt slightly relieved at first. It probably would have been safer to ask before tearing apart Murderworld equipment, but he just hadn't thought about it in his excitement. Any thought of the possible consequences had been tossed out in the wind. Maybe he'd thought he'd be able to show somebody the snazzy laser gun he'd made and they would be so distracted by its shininess that they'd completely disregard the destruction necessary to put such a thing together.

“I’m guessing they have abilities comparable to the powers of the originals."

Taylor simply nodded. He didn't really know anybody's powers besides Magneto and the big lizard Acolyte, but that would be the logical conclusion. The nodding came to an abrupt halt when she started talking about attacking people in their sleep. It was very clear that she suspected him, but there wasn't a whole lot he could do to dispel those suspicions.

"Well, If I was planning on killing you all in your sleep, it'd be a lot easier with the robots in one piece." He stated, glancing at the beheaded and partially deconstructed machine, then back at Amelia. It would have been nice to point out that he'd left once and came back, but that would only put him in deeper suspicion. They wouldn't see it as him being supportive of their cause.

“Well, If I was planning on killing you all in your sleep, it'd be a lot easier with the robots in one piece," the cyberpath said shooting a glance over to his handiwork and then back to the red head.

“I suppose that’s true,” she replied. “For the moment, they don’t seem to be very mobile.”

There were other armaments about the compound. There were security measures in place set by Arcade as well as the Brotherhood once they took up residence. There was a command room where the entire park was held under surveillance. There was barely a square foot of the park that didn’t have an electronic eye watching over it. From the control room, any of the traps could be sprung and any of the defenses could have been enacted.

Amelia was going to wary nonetheless. They had to be careful. Magneto was a highly feared man among the humans. Even among the mutant community he was feared. They were terrorists and knew that there were threats from the outside. It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to think that a threat could come from within the group. This young blond child could pose a threat if he was left unchecked. They had taken in other members but some were still held under a degree of scrutiny until they had proven themselves.

“You have a knack for electronic, Koen. That amplification device you made to project our message throughout Mutant Town worked very well. I’m just saying in today’s society we rely heavily on those devices. You could certainly do a lot of good for the mutant community with your abilities,” she said.

It was true. Koen’s broadcast device worked like a charm. Unfortunately, it was punted into the chest of a Sentinel. “I’m sure you could reconfigure weapons as easily as you constructed the broadcast device.”

Taylor relaxed a little bit as Amelia acknowledged his logic. He'd taken heed to Magneto's warning and had only done a little prodding into Murderworlds security and computers, but he hadn't poked his nose into any overly sensitive information. The most classified information he'd managed to take was the clown's security code, but he wouldn't have much opportunity to use it very often. What Magneto might not have realized was that his mere mention of such tight security only aroused his curiosity. He wouldn't be trying anything just yet, but in a few months...

Taylor felt pride at Amelia's compliment, but something in her words bugged him. Enough that he'd take a moment to correct the Acolyte. She didn't seem the type to gut him over a small difference, but it was important, even if in an irrational sort of way. "I'd... rather go by Taylor."

Now that that was out of his system, he could properly respond. "And it was a lot easier to rig something to magnify radio waves than to try and beef up this thing," He tapped the eye with a finger, "to make a workable weapon."

He was very aware that his powers were non-combative, but that was the beauty of technology. As long as he had the right stuff, he could be more powerful than many of the mutants were with their fireballs and super-strength. He just had to figure the stuff out, first. The sentinel pilots were lucky. They didn't have to know how their weapons worked in order to use them. All they had to do was point and shoot.

Picking up the eye again, Taylor mentally reexamined the device, this time comparing it to the schematics on his flash-drive. The similarities were vague. Maybe he could turn it into a little wrist-mounted blaster or something. "I don't think this is strong enough, though. It might stun a baseline human, but compared to lots of mutants out there, this is just a kiddie toy." He turned it about in his hand. If he wanted something more powerful, he'd have to build it himself, apparently. That wouldn't be very easy, considering his limited supplies.

"I'm not out to maim, pillage and slaughter, but if I end up fighting somebody, it'd be nice to have something to do besides blow up their cell phones."

Amelia had complimented the child. There was a subtle change in his disposition. The cyberpath seemed to perk up slightly. It felt good to be acknowledged. The nurse knew precious little about electronics. Those kinds of things were way over her head. It seemed that he had put a lot of work into the machinations he was constructing. For all she knew it was as simple for him as transubstantiation was for her. That was probably how things worked anyway. He had a natural aptitude for them. It did seem that some tasks were easier than other ones. He claimed that the broadcast device was easier to construct than the weapons. That was probably true. Weapons were much more complex.

One thing that struck her was the request for his name. She had referred to him as Koen and he had asked to be called Taylor. It wasn’t that big of a deal. Many people didn’t like to go by the name they were given at birth; especially some of the mutants she had gotten to know. She made a note to call him Taylor from now on. She for one was fine with the name she had given. She was going to carry on the legacy.

For a moment, Amelia thought he was selling himself short in regards to his powers. He couldn’t directly battle an opponent. His powers required more finesse than an outright attack. He had to work through proxies. “I understand what you are saying. At first, my powers of changing substances into a vapor appeared merely defensive. I could move myself or an ally away from an attack or even teleport an enemy away,” she explained. “Eventually, I learned new techniques and ways to use my abilities in an offensive manner. There is always room for growth.”

Amelia thought back to different instances when she had used her abilities. She had attacked the member of X-Factor, Lorna. Amelia caused a rain of gasoline to pour down on the young woman that ignited into a rain of fire. She then remembered transporting water into the lungs of a scientist while he slept. She had definitely learned to use her powers in new and interesting, if not terrible, ways

She could turn stuff into vapor? A flexible and useful power, plus she was obviously intelligent. Small wonder she'd been chosen as one of Magneto's Acolytes. She wasn't like what he'd expected from one of Magneto's closest followers. He'd expected all the Acolytes to be cold-blooded mercenary-like killers. Apparently, that was not so. She was being helpful. In order to be of use, he'd have to learn more. Not just about his powers, but the technology his powers affected.

"New techniques, right?" The Brotherhood had no library, to his knowledge. That meant once Taylor had exhausted the Sentinel tech, there wouldn't be anywhere else to draw from. Well, hopefully by then he'll be allowed internet access at least. Or he'd have enough of a foundation to start coming up with his own stuff, instead of stealing ideas from others.

"Do you think I could get access to some supplies? So I might not have to tear stuff apart to make what I want" Taylor asked, "It's only a matter of time before the stuff nobody cares about is all gone." He wasn't sure if Amelia was the right person to ask, but she was here right now. At least he could gauge her reaction, and decide if he was going to take the request to Magneto.