User visit: Mark Grayson

[a1enzo]

"Okay," says Enzo, leading Mark into the digimat room, "just stand over there in the target area so I can shoot you with this laser."

Comments

[a1enzo]

"Oh... crash it. That's gotta be it. He's half alien, sir. That part must have translated as..."

"Yes, yes, I get the picture. Hmph. And a hero, you say? Well, Mr. Hero, if that's true I'm sure you won't mind us giving you a proper scan?"

"You may as well," Enzo murmurs. "It doesn't take long, and all you have to do is stand there."

[1nv1nc1ble]

"If it makes everyone here happy," says Mark, "scan away. Heck, do it twice. Just to make sure."

He steps out, hands at his sides in as neutral a stance as he can offer.

[a1enzo]

"Glad to hear it." The Admin looks beyond them to such of the crowd as he can see behind them. "You and you, escort them to the infirmary." The vidwindow closes as abruptly as it opened.

One cadet precedes them down the hallway, while another follows behind. "I am so sorry about this," Enzo mutters, mortified. "The Guardian Collective, not everyone in it but as a group, is kind of... fundamentally paranoid. I mean, it has to be, that's our job, but..."

[1nv1nc1ble]

"Hey, it's cool," replies Mark, lightly. "You're police. Police have to be like police. This isn't the first time I've had someone point a gun at me."

He looks around as they're escorted down the hall. "And it's certainly a different tour than you've given the other folks who've come here." He waves at a cadet, gawking as they pass. The Q&A should be interesting.

[a1enzo]

Actually, what the girl behind them (who looks at least as embarrassed about it as Enzo) is pointing at him is more like a crossbow, albeit one with a glowstick for a bolt.

They are indeed getting some excellent stares, but some cadets wave back. Others are already laughing themselves sick, and a few even cheer.

If nothing else, Mark has made the evening interesting.

[1nv1nc1ble]

Gun, crossbow, death ray... it's all pretty much the same. There's a right end and a wrong end, and as the man said, being on the wrong end means that things are going to go badly for you. (Unless you're, you know, invincible.)

"So, since we're here, you can always give me some of the tour now, if you want," he says to Enzo, looking around. "This appears to be an excellent example of a hallway, but I'm sure there's more here to see."

[a1enzo]

"Well, this is Academy CTRL. It's, you know, administration, assemblies, the cafeteria. That kind of thing. Everyone calls it Master Control."

[1nv1nc1ble]

"Sounds familiar," Mark muses, nodding. He looks around, noting that it looks, pretty much, like a futuristic version of the administrative building at UCSC, which he saw when he went on his campus tour a few weeks ago. Hopefully, there won't be any cyborgs attacking during the tour.

"Everything else is linked to here?"

[a1enzo]

"The buildings? Nah. They're all spaced around the Hub. There's four academic buildings, the PE cluster, and the dorm."

[1nv1nc1ble]

Mark nods. He looks around, taking in the architecture and the long line of pictures (GIFs?) of what appear to be headmasters or other distinguished, somber educators looking down at the student body with expressions of disapproval. (Either that, or that fellow with the chrome handlebar moustache had a bad case of gas when they took the picture).

"Is the PE stuff just like sports, or do you guys learn the tools of the trade over there?" He indicates the crossbow-like armament in his escort's hands with a glance. "Or is that part of the field training you're doing with Whatshisname?"

[a1enzo]

Their escort (a pale blue girl with copper hair and big goggles) speaks up. "It's mostly combat t-training. There's also the g-general stuff, though. Climbing, running, swimming, weights. Sports are mostly in G-Game training."

[1nv1nc1ble]

Mark starts a little when the girl speaks, but nods. "Plenty of places to blow off steam, too, it sounds like. Or do you guys prefer to be away from the Admins when you have fun?"

He turns and addresses the girl directly. "Hi. I'm Mark. The dangerous Webcreature." He raises his hands and claws the air. "Rar."

[a1enzo]

"We go out into the system a lot in the evenings, yeah." One does need to get off campus occasionally.

The girl smiles at him, to make it quite clear that this was not her idea. "I'm Alvey."

"She's cool," Enzo informs Mark. "She's one of my roommates' girlfriend, actually."

"I'm Gil," supplies their forward escort. He's a couple years days older than Enzo, with teal skin and a more conventional (if sci-fi-ish) sidearm.

[1nv1nc1ble]

"Well, that's good," replies Mark. "It'd suck if this was run like some weird digital boarding school."

"It's nice to meet both of you," says Mark sincerely. "So, now that we're all on speaking terms, can someone tell me what it is about Webcreatures that got the talking head with the Santa Claus beard so worked up?"

[a1enzo]

It is a weird digital boarding school. It's not a prison, though.

"Some Webcreatures are invasive," Alvey explains. "They're not really adapted to life in the Net, b-but it's still a safer environment than the Web. At least, we think that's why. Anyway, if one turns up in a system at all, it's usually the bad k-kind."

"And some of them can create portals," Gil adds. "So if they're not contained, they can spread from system to system."

Enzo says nothing, but looks grim. It's not a favourite topic.

[1nv1nc1ble]

"So, they just move in and take over?" Mark asks. "Sounds nasty. No wonder everyone went for the guns first."

"Good reactions," he says after a moment. "I don't think I'd have moved that fast."

(Well, truth be told, he'd have reacted slower, but moved a LOT faster.)

[a1enzo]

They may be unpowered, but they're very well trained.

"Thanks." "Thanks."

They enter the infirmary, where the Admin has arrived ahead of them; he raises an eyebrow at the chummy atmosphere. Seen in full, he has a build reminiscent of a bear preparing for hibernation.

"Mark... Administrator Rijndael." (It's pronounced more or less like Randall.)

[1nv1nc1ble]

The infirmary gets a onceover; Mark is mildly curious, now that he's here, on how it might look different from the school nurse's office. The introduction brings his attention around to the serious, if rotund, adult.

Well, at least the rest of him also looks like Santa Claus.... sorta, thinks Mark. His blank visage makes it hard to read, but he sounds properly respectful when he says, "Good afternoon, Administrator. My apologies for the ruckus. It wasn't intentional."

(The narrative will leave it to the reader whether or not Mark would have apologized for intentional ruckus.)

[a1enzo]

On the one hand, the infirmary has rather more scanners and monitors than Mark is likely used to. On the other hand, it also has corny posters and something that appears to be the digital equivalent of a rack of pamphlets.

Rijndael (who does look a bit like Santa Claus if Santa wore military uniform, could bench his own weight, and were inclined to consider you Naughty until proven Nice) gives Mark a piercing look for a moment and then nods. "Well, if you are a Webcreature, you're more polite than most. S'pose I should apologize for the reception. Seeing as how Cadet Matrix is involved"—he gives Enzo a this-is-doing-my-ulcer-no-good look—"I'm prepared to believe you, but I won't be executing my function if I don't confirm it."

[1nv1nc1ble]

"I understand,sir," says Mark, nodding. "You have to be true to your function."

Mark didn't really get that, prior to the digitization. But now, he can feel his own function - Hero - as part of his being, with a clarity and surety that he hadn't experienced before. What he thought of as simply following in his father's footsteps and a logical use of his superpowers now feels like a defining element of what makes Mark who he is, what makes him Invincible.

For a nineteen-year-old on the cusp of his adult life, it's a refreshingly unmuddied viewpoint.

He looks around the infirmary. "What's first?"

[a1enzo]

A binome speaks up, indicating the usual sort of table/bed found in any doctor's office. "Sit right there, please."

[1nv1nc1ble]

"Certainly," says Mark, seating himself on the table. He looks around, then adds, in a lower tone, "This isn't going to be comprehensive exam, is it? Because I think I might need a curtain." He looks around the infirmary at the collection of staff and bystanders (doubtless there are a few students loitering near the entrance).

"And maybe a gown."

[a1enzo]

"Probably not," says the doctor blithely. "Just hold still..."

He straps something like a sphygmomanometer onto Mark's upper arm, sticks an apparent thermometer in his mouth, and waves a device over him from all sides. It looks a bit like a metal detector wand such as airport security might have, except it glows brightly.

Lines of code start scrolling up a nearby screen. Both the doctor and the Admin scrutinize it.

"Well. That's new."

[1nv1nc1ble]

"Wmph nmph?" asks Mark. He pulls the - well, let's just call it a 'thermometer' for simplicity's sake - the thermometer out of his mouth, and repeats, "What's new?"

[a1enzo]

The doctor looks annoyed, but they've got enough data.

"Your code is definitely consistent with some types of Webcreature..."

"Among the more dangerous and malignant ones, too," puts in Rijndael.

"...up to a point. But... well, you are a hero format. The scanner doesn't lie."