Log:Unbidden Memories

Pay It Forward 2014/11/16 Paragon

3

Earlier, one of the doctors in a hazmat suit was checking on Third and, after explaining the procedure, injected something into her IV feed.

"But...my sisters. Porter. How long will I...be...."

The words become hard to form as the meds hit her. She loses focus and her eyes close as she drifts into a medically induced coma. The doctor remains at her side for a few minutes to watch the monitors and make sure everything's fine before leaving the room.

After a short time of being put under, Third starts dreaming...

Vivid dreams of a time before Third knew of emotional pain, when she was black and white, free and new, like a child in her innocence... She wanders back in time to something that is buried deep in her memory banks, some thing so far back that it is but a mote, it was one of her first days as a 'hero', as a paragon of justice.

It is Boston, mid winter about 5 years ago, snow falls lightly and dusts the ground, it is about 20 degrees out...

It's one of her first solo patrols after a month of being trained by the Guardians, studying Captain Amazing's example of heroism. Paragon is leaping through the city looking to assist citizens and combat trouble. There's a thin layer of frost fogging up parts of her armor. Her eyes detect a possible issue at hand.

Paragon lands several feet behind an old man with a cane and a grocery bag, struggling to navigate the slippery iced over sidewalk. There's a CA-CHUNK as her plated feet hit pavement. The featureless helm tilts slightly in curious observation of the man's unsteady steps. After a few moments of processing the issue, Paragon announces in her boisterous, heroically enthusiastic copy of Captain Amazing's speech patterns, "Greetings, Citizen! You appear to be having mobility issues. May I be of assistance?" The echoing of her voice in her helm gives her the impression of being a greeter bot.

It's one of her first solo patrols after a month of being trained by the Guardians, studying Captain Amazing's example of heroism. Paragon is leaping through the city looking to assist citizens and combat trouble. There's a thin layer of frost fogging up parts of her armor. Her eyes detect a possible issue at hand.

Paragon lands several feet behind an old man with a cane and a grocery bag, struggling to navigate the slippery iced over sidewalk. There's a CA-CHUNK as her plated feet hit pavement. The featureless helm tilts slightly in curious observation of the man's unsteady steps. After a few moments of processing the issue, Paragon announces in her boisterous, heroically enthusiastic copy of Captain Amazing's speech patterns, "Greetings, Citizen! I'm Paragon of the Guardians!" She fires off a cub scout salute. "You appear to be having mobility issues. May I be of assistance?" The echoing of her voice in her helm gives her the impression of being a greeter bot.

The old man looks at Paragon, "I'm old not deaf! and who are you? someone from the VA? I told them I didn't need no help!"

The old man continues on his slow walk home grumbling, "Where were they in the gulf?..Come back and can't get no help then, now they's bein' sending their robots to help.."

"My apologies, Citizen," Paragon says without any offense taken. "I'm Paragon of the Guardians," she repeats in quieter, but still heroic campy tones. She stands akimbo, her glowing eyes blink off and on a few times and scan over the man without any movement of her head. "I am not from the VA. I am with the Guardians," she clarifies in polite, robotic tones. As he walks away, her arms lower to her sides and she begins to walk mechanically forward to match is pace. "It is 19.4 degrees fahrenheit, but wind chills will make it feel more like 12.9 degrees fahrenheit. The sidewalk can be slippery in such conditions. Are you sure I cannot be of assistance, Citizen?" she offers in chipper, helpful tones. "I could carry your groceries, or provide mobility assistance."

The Old man looks at her, "You's got new knees for me? or New hips? the VA says its elective, so they won't cover it. That's whats I needs, not some robot boy scout..dang robots.." he says obviously having been around prior to the turn of the century, he still doesn't like or trust robots, you know, he remembers that old classic with Will Smith, I Robot

Paragon halts her following protocol as she gets dumbfounded by the request. It does not computer. "I do not carry spare parts with me. They are back at Blackhawk's workshop." She pauses and looks down at the man's knees and hips, her round eyes adjusting in diameter as her focus changes. "Adjustments for fit would be required," she concludes.

The old man nods, "Yeah yeah,..you're just like the rest, there when you's useless, useless when needed.." he says as he continues his curmudgeon ways and trudges slowly towards his 5th floor apartment down the block.

Paragon's helm perks up and turns 15 degrees to the left at the sound of an alarm, her eyes expanding in diameter. She looks back to the old man, then towards the alarm, trying to sort priorities. What would the Captain do?



Three weeks back, before Paragon earned her moniker...

Paragon is picking up an old lady to help her cross the street as the woman ineffectually beats her faceplate with her handbag. "You are obstructing my view, Citizen," she politely informs.

"Unit 3, what are you doing? Put that citizen down! -Carefully-." Captain Amazing floats down for a rapid landing beside Unit 3, his cape fluttering in the breeze.

Unit 3 turns her head to the Captain and states simply, "I am helping this Citizen across the street. Civilian accidents are up 11.9% at this intersection during the wint--" WHAP! The old woman strikes Unit 3 again while calling her a brute, "--er." But Unit 3 complies to the Captain's orders, very carefully setting the old woman down. "I was just trying to be of assistance."

The Captain claps a hand on Unit 3's shoulders and shakes his head, grinning slightly. "You can't just force help on others like that, Unit 3. They have to give you permission. Unless their life is in immediate danger or they are unable to request assistance. Do you understand?"

Unit 3 takes another beating over the head before the woman crosses the street on her own. "I comprehend."



If the old man does not require assistance and does not request assistance, it cannot be forced. Heroes do not force their will or help on others if it is not wanted. Paragon salutes the old man. "Thank you for your service," she pauses to process the man's words, "Veteran." She appends his title. "I'm afraid I am needed elsewhere." And then she's off! leaping in the direction of the alarms.

A few leaps later and only a few seconds later, Paragon is able to discover the source of the alarms, the alarm itself is a very archaic metal bell that rings with the opening of a secured door. The building to the door seems older than the veteran that she just left, it is an old brick building, from its look it has been abandoned for a few years, There are a few modern adornments so it can't have been abandoned for too long, but it is definitely defunct now. On its side is a sign in moderate disrepair that reads 

Paragon comes down for a heavy landing in front of the building, not having a concept of stealth yet. Or caution. Her faceplate pans up to read the company sign. She tries to start up her comm systems to contact the Guardians, but instead of a signal, she gets a few sparks that make her jerk her head to the left once. In the cold winter air, a few tendrils of smoke rise up between the plate seams around the right side of her neck. <>

Forgoing alerting the team, Paragon heads into Ace Pharmaceuticals at a steady march.

The building is dark, except for a few exit signs that still seem to work, the place seems devoid of life.

The place seems empty, devoid of life, which is strange, what is more strange is that as she enters the building, it is also in perfect repair. Offices still intact, terminals still sit where they were left...

Unable to detect anything on her HUD in the dark, Paragon's eyes flick to green as she activates nightvision mode. The place lights up to her perceptions as she searches the area. She starts to walk further into the building as she investigates.

The interior of the building is immaculate, as she moves further in, light shines from under a doorway, it is almost blinding in the total darkness of the building..

The light burns Paragon's eyes thanks to the nightvision, her eye-lights shrinking down to circular pinpoints as she holds a hand up to shield her eyeslots. Her eyes shift back to white as she shuts off nightvision mode and heads for the door quickly.

The door to the room is cold to the touch, very cold, and the door is locked from the inside.

A locked door is nothing to Paragon, but the protocols Blackhawk installed make her averse to causing property damage. So when her hand closes around the handle and it does not open, she pauses. Her eyes dim in thought on the next step in handling a potential Breaking and Entering. "Come out with your hands up!" Paragon says in authoritative tones.

Her words are met with silence..

Paragon waits a few moments to give the person a chance to respond. When continued silence seems imminent, she issues another update. "If you surrender now, I will ask the courts to be lenient with your sentencing and inform them that you fully cooperated. If you do not surrender, I will be required to apprehend you." Mechanical. Informative. And lacking in emotions such as apprehension or anger. It is a most polite plea.

The silence is deafening...

Paragon has to make a judgement call. She's terrible at those. If Then statements are much easier for her. After running through scenarios in her head, she makes a call to carefully force the door open.

The lock breaks, as is expected, and as the door opens, the room is discovered to be a server cold room. The lack of any working HVAC in the building, plus the working AC unit in the cold room make the cold room more like a walk in freezer than a cold room, the temperature in the room must be in the low thirties, and the servers still seem functional. In the cold room are monitors as well that seem to work. Like the archaic bell that must have been a part of the security system, these systems still seem in place. Paragon's eyes flicker to red to search for heat signatures in the room, her head panning again. There was a light from here. There has to be a source somewhere.

Paragon pads into the room heavily as she takes in the details of the room. Making her way to the systems, her head finally cranes towards it to examine them.

The monitors are frosted over, but they are active..

Raising a hand carefully, Paragon tries to wipe the frost off the monitors.

It seems the systems have recently been activated. The broken door blinks on the monitor, as does the server room door, but motion activated devices are showing activity on another floor, it says b2. camera's seem to be down, but pressure sensors on the floor track the movement as well, the movement seems deliberate, bypassing several doors, until it seems to turn into a room marked on the sensor grid as B2 153

Paragon leans over the keyboard after wiping off the frost on the screens. With a few quick clickity clacking movements of her hands, she pulls up the security information and studies the screen blankly as she takes in the map displayed. She pulls up the current floor's map to locate the nearest stairwell or elevator.

The system shows that there should be a stairwell just next to the cold room. There are apparently 5 sub-basement floors as well as the 5 floors above. The stairs are locked off below subbasement 1, but an elevator that seems service sized is available on the subbasement.

Paragon's plated finger taps on the screen at the corresponding location of the elevator. Route acquired. She memorizes the map directions and quickly leaves the server room, carefully closing the door delicately behind her before racing to the elevator, clicking the 'down' button as soon as she gets there. As she waits for the elevator, she stands akimbo patiently.

Like most of the complex, the elevators..at least on these floors are not powered up..

Paragon waits for a few moments before realizing the elevator isn't moving. Or reporting a floor level. Taking a step forward, she tries to wedge her fingers in between the doors to pull them open without causing damage.

The metal resists but cannot resist the gentle persuasions of Paragons' fingertips..and associated muscles the metal whines as the doors are forced open revealing a elevator shaft that extends into the darkness..

Paragon's eyes flick to green again to give her a better view of the elevator shaft. She steps to the edge, extends a hand to grab the cable, and then steps -off- the edge. Like some swashbuckling hero, she slides down the cable, counting the floors. Basement 1...Basement 2. Her hand clenches around the rope to stop her descent, while the other reaches to pry the door open.

The doors once again open under protest for Paragon. The floor she opens to, basement 2 is as dark as the ground floor was...

The nightvision mode allows her to navigate in the dark without any issues. She steps out onto the floor, orients herself, and heads towards designate B2 153 quickly. But probably not all that quietly, given her inexperience with the need for stealth or subtlety.

All the doors are closed, there is no exception for B2 153. From below the door though a light that seemed to be moving around like a flashlight suddenly goes dark in the room.

Now that seems like a positive indicator of illegal activities and probably cause. Paragon isn't sure how that fits in this scenario, but she is trying to do her best to 'improvise', as the Captain puts it. Her hand goes to the door handle and she tries to enter.

This door is open, and the lights are out, but to Paragon's night vision, she can see a man in his mid-thirties hiding behind a rolling cart, he doesn't seem armed with anything except a flashlight that is currently off. He is dressed in upscale clothes, but it is threadbare, and he carries a heavy uneven beard and his hair is likewise unkempt..

Paragon shuts the door behind her and walks over directly to the hiding man. "You have been caught breaking and entering," she informs cordially, coming to a stop a few feet away from him and looking at him directly as she stands akimbo. "Please surrender immediately, and I will speak on your behalf to ask for the courts to be lenient in consideration of your cooperation," she announces metallically.

The man stands up quickly making a frightened sound, only hearing a robotic voice and glowing eyes, he says through chattering teeth, "..n..no!..No..S..sarah needs this!" he turns the highpowered flashlight on and flashes Paragon in the eyes, scrambling to get away..

Paragon blinks a few times at his statement, tilting her head. It seems irrelevant. "Query: Who is Sar--uh?" Her vision is momentarily filled with searing bright light as the nightvision mode amplifies the light from the flashlight. Her eyes shrink down to pinpoints as she squints within the helm. She sees spots and not much else.

The man scrambles and falls over the cart trying to make for the door.. "Sarah..I will not fail you..Oof!" he says falling on his face in front of the door.

Paragon's vision returns quickly, and her head tracks the sound of the man falling on his face. Her body rotates with a half step to align her body into the direction of her head, then she steps forward mechanically and leans down to try and pick the man up. "Is Sarah your boss? Do you require medical assistance?" she asks for clarification and to check if the man is injured from the fall.

Magma scrambles but cant find his footing and he backs himself into a corner, his eyes dart from side to side looking for a way out..he tries the flashlight trick again..

Paragon turns her head aside as he tries to flash her eyeslots again, shielding herself just in time. Her eyes flick to white as she shuts off nightvision mode and looks back to the man. She moves to grab him by his upper armor without applying pressure.

The man tries again, but fails and tears roll down his cheeks as he is grabbed, "N..no.." he sniffles, "My wife she needs this..she is very sick.." he says...

Paragon's hand closes around the man's arm. And she begins to assist him carefully to his feet without causing harm. The Guardians made her spend weeks practicing holding and carrying around eggs without breaking them with her super strength. The team was starting to get sick of all the omelettes, frittatas, and souffles Paragon learned to cook with all her mistakes. But she finally gained the fine level of control to pick up an egg without cracking it.

She studies the man's face as he cries. She looks him over. "What does she require?" she prompts, lowering her voice from it's usual heroic volumes.

The man says with a rough voice.."She needs to get this..it is a formula she made, its a cure for something that was cooked up in this lab, she's been infected and needs to get this or she will die.."

Paragon stares at him a few moments, unsure of what to do in this situation. "So she owns this formula?" she asks in confusion. She tries to observe what he has taken, checking his hands. "What was she infected with?"

The man says bitterly, "She made this formula for Ace, but then Covington Industries bought Ace and shut down her research, they fired me, but they kept her on, and now she's sick with what they had her trying to find a cure for!" his voice raises in anger.."I need to get this to her.."

"Is that all you took?" Paragon inquires carefully. She's processing what to do. This doesn't fit her If Then scenarios at all. She ponders to herself: What would the Captain do?

The man nods, "Yes..yes of course?" he seem confused by the question, "I..I'm not a theif!..I'm a doctor!" he protests as if insulted.."Please..please.." he says pitiably, "Sarah...please.." he says between sniffs as the tears dry and freeze on his cheeks.

Paragon spends a little more time in thought. Threadbare clothes. Armed only with a flash light. Tripped all the alarms. He's definitely not a career criminal. The Guardians did not prepare her for a scenario where crooks cried. Only civilians in need of aid. Which is what he reads as to her, more than a crook. She searches her databanks on past references of Captain Amazing's behavior and actions to extrapolate what he would do. He is looked up to as a paragon of virtue, and she uses him as her basis of behaviors.

Eventually, the answer comes to her. Mercy. Captain Amazing would be merciful to someone who was crying. So she makes a decision. She wants to do what a hero like the Captain would do. Summoning a picture of the Captain in her mind, she starts to imitate his actions. Paragon gently releases the man's arm and flashes one of the Captain's sympathetic smiles behind her faceplate, even if it can't be seen. Her voice finally carries the warmth of compassion rather than mechanical precision. "I will let you off with a warning, Citizen. If you promise to give up a life of crime and never steal again."

The man looks surprised, and relieved, "I will NEVER steal again!" he says emphatically, He gives her icy armored form a hug, "I..Sarah thanks you!" he says with a smile that comes from his heart. "You are a true hero! You are my hero!" he says with now tears of joy coming from his eyes, "I..I have to go, thank you thank you thank you!" he says and he runs out the door with the flash light now lighting his way.

Paragon fires off a cub scout salute as the man departs. She's left wondering if she made the right choice. At the very least, it -felt- like the right choice. Perhaps this sensation is what the Captain meant by following one's heart?

The medicine doesn't seem to work as long as they would have thought given Third's meta metabolism, and she begins to rise out of her dream state.

The dream fades and becomes murky as Third starts to wake up, as dreams do when one wakes up. With a few wet sounding coughs and a wince, Third's eyes open slowly. She lets out a soft, rattling sigh. Despite being sick and fatigued, for some reason she feels positive and uplifted.