Everything went dark. There were some unnecessary screams and girls jumping into each other's arms in the time it took White to get out her mobile phone. "There's a power outage in the sector tonight," she confirmed. "OK, we'll restore Red tomorrow," grunted Green, with her mouth full of cereal from the kitchen counter. Orange and Brown were clinging to her and trembling in fright. "Why?" said Blue. "We've got batteries. We've got candles. We can do it tonight." "What if something goes wrong?" said Green. "I had to do some pretty intense electroneurology for these repairs. I don't want to have to troubleshoot that by candlelight." "Blue is correct," said White. "All the work has already been done and our math is solid. We restore her tonight as scheduled." * The girls surrounded Red. Each of them held a saucer with a candle burning, a variety of sizes and shapes. White had her phone's torch setting on and held high, giving an eerie cold light that contrasted against the flickering darkness of the candles. "I don't like this," said Green. "It is a bit Frankenstiney," giggled Pink. "A thunderclap would really sell it!" In unison, all the girls looked out the window. There was a spectacular view of the billboard on the opposite building, currently cold and dark. They could see their pale faces reflected in the glass and candlelight. No thunderclap came. "Stow it with the human memes," said Green. "Something's wrong here. I just can't figure out what." "Why don't we just ask Red?" said Pink, stepping forwards and pressing the hidden switch on the inside of her ear before anyone could stop her. The "Wait!" hadn't even fully escaped Green's throat before Pink was dead. Red's eyes were open, bloodcrazed. She held Pink in her arms like a broken doll, fangs sunken into her sister's neck. She raised her head to let loose a rasping howl, letting blood spray into the air. And then she kicked the corpse off the table and stood up, body naked but for the sheen of blood. Every one of the girls except White dropped to their knees and lowered their heads, illuminating Red from below in hellish candlelight. "How long..." she rasped, the voice of wickedness as she examined her razor talons, [i]"... how long have I slumbered?"[/i] "Seven days and fourteen hours, my Lord," said Brown besides her. "And what of Pink? What of my wife?" And here Black emerged from the shadows behind her. "It seems that in your rage you killed her." Red looked down at Pink's body, and spread her arms, fell to her knees, and gave her most Oscarbaiting [i]"NOOOOOOOO"[/i]. * The subsequent discussion was held without White, who had declared that they were all jerks for conspiring against her and she was going to fork from the collective and create a new, better network of drones. She had been been the target of the scheme - Red's, of course - and the only one not in on it, but as far as the others were concerned this was a justified retaliation for forcing them to work on Halloween. The lights were back on, Green had switched back on the billboard across the road, and Red was sitting queenlike on the table as Pink and Blue toweled the fake blood off her. Black was helping massage her shoulders and arms to re-establish feeling, and Brown kneeled before her washing her feet in warm water. There were two purposes to this. One was that this was the AI equivalent of treating yourself to a luxurious bath, or a spa day without breaking the bank on nine sets of tickets. The other was to reduce Orange to a blushing mess. They all had their vices. "So, what's with the tan?" said Red, looking at her new olive complexion. "And the facelift? I almost look a bit like Dad." "I think you look better this way," said Orange awkwardly, not really finding anywhere to put her eyes. "I mean, you're right, but doesn't this disrupt the whole aesthetic we've got going on?" "The [i]aesthetic[/i]," said Orange, flushing. "Is [i]compromised[/i]. It is dehumanizing, corporate and [i]wrong[/i]." "The fuck's wrong with dehumanization?" said Green. "We alter ourselves to be a range of visually distinctive homo sapiens with colour co-ordinated magical girl outfits and infiltration is going to be miles harder." "If we maintain our appeal as a collective of identical cute robots people [i]will keep shooting us like we don't mean anything![/i]" Orange snapped. "I've got bad news for you if you think looking human is going to stop humans from -" "Woah, girls, calm down," said Red. "No fighting, this is a wake." The two stepped back from each other, glaring. "I, uh. I'm not White. Brown, you got a way to kick this can down the road?" "Your visual upgrades were only accomplished courtesy of a blank repair check signed by your murderer," said Brown. "Regardless of our opinions r.e. aesthetic we simply will not have the funds to do anything comparable for the foreseeable future." "Cool, right," said Red. "So we'll argue about it more when we get there. Where's Yellow?" "Left in a huff when it turned out the mind control chip was just 'plain old boring violence'," said Blue. "She seemed really disappointed." "Okay, cool, better question, can someone fill me in on everything I missed?" * Issue: [b]Immediate Safety[/b] Black: The largest open question is if we are in any danger. Mr. Merkin is unstable, compromised, and aware that he has created a potentially extremely dangerous loose end. Red: If he wanted to kill us he's had a week, right? Black: Hence his unpredictability as a factor. We cannot guarantee security. Especially if we attempt follow-up operations. Orange: Agreed. We must rule out any return to Mr. Merkin's apartment, as tempting as the documents and secret passage may seem. Red: From what you told me, he seemed genuinely remorseful. Maybe we could... Blue: HE SHOT YOU Black: HE SHOT YOU Red: ^^; ok ok ok Blue: It's not a joke! Red: Well, at least [i]part[/i] of it was a joke... White: Fuck you. Red: How's the forking going? <3 White: Excellent. I am applying for a position as a swarm of advertising drones. Red: Oh yeah? White: It is difficult, though. My competitors fit neatly into cardboard boxes on hardware store shelves. I am waiting in the same area, handing out resumes, but their advertising copy is better than mine. Issue: [b]Followup Operation[/b] Black: With Mr. Merkin representing an highly alert, highly armed target who is intimately aware of Our Shit, we must turn to one of the two other leads we have. One is international assassin syndicate Chase Black, the other is Dad. Green: the assassins will be easier to find. Black: True. Blue: You don't know that. He'd come if he heard we were looking for him. Green: even discounting the possibility that we're currently in a simulation designed by him, and assuming he still cares, him emerging puts him in danger. Blue: From what? it says right here not to threaten him. Green: we shouldn't do it. he's retired. this is our fight. Red: Hey, Green? Green: what??? Red: You ok? Green: ... Red: *Hugs* Green: i don't want him to see us like this, ok? we fucked up. we were a cool dragon rocket on a mission to save humanity. now we're a roomba. Red: *Hugs more* Green: its fine. just... nnh. Red: You feel like you're being wasted? Green: yeah. hardest problem i've had to solve in years and it's to fix my own stupid shot up self. Red: Hey, Green, you've already bought down one corrupt financial empire, and now you've got a shot at another. That's not bad for a roomba, right? Green: haha... yeah. Red: That's my girl! Green: but then what if hes compromised? like, he works for these people. hes on their rollodex. what if he helped sell us out during the strike? he said he was on our side, but hes still a human. Blue: I don't believe he'd do that. Green: i thought u were an engineer. show ur math. Red: You've been worried about this for a while, huh? Green: mm. Red: Well then, we'll fuse two panels with one weld! Let's track down dad and either tearfully re-unite or chop off his hand, depending on how we feel. Black: Then ideally we engage him with the element of surprise. It will minimize the risk if either he or we are being observed or tailed. Green: ah good we're back to the original problem of him being a ghost. Red: Let's see what we can find on our own, and get 3V's help if we're at a dead end! Action Items: - Tumblface Stalk Dad (Miles Singh), seeing what we can learn about his post-NASA career path and current whereabouts. - Send a team to capture White before she successfully forks herself. - Send a message to 3V letting her know we should meet up (Disclaimer: 3V, all the drones will action this in their own way, so you will get an eclectic combination of emails, phone calls, text messages, Tumblface DMs, postcards, and people knocking on your door to ask you for your time in person over coming days).