What Remains

[Toshiro Narumi]

"This material is amazing," Tosh said with appreciation, "It's like every primary system component at once. Some part of Miss Minamida could definitely be in there."

"As for how it grew back, the nanites rebuilt it. So it's a little different than the original crystals."

[Natalie Denisov]

"So, in theory, if I could reactivate the nanites, with better controls obviously, we could get them to rebuild the system or at least come close."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Precisely. But do you think you could keep them under control long enough?"

[Natalie Denisov]

"In this body I can stay up for several days straight and I can rewrite their programming to be less distributed so that we can shut down the control node and shut them down if need be. It might take me a few days to get it right though. Think you can rig up something to find and collect the ones that are scattered around campus?"

[Hank McCoy]

Soon, Doctor McCoy comes back down the corridor, bearing two canisters roughly a meter in length each. The reinforced glass sides show crystals quite similar to the one they're presently studying, with smaller ones encrusted on the glass. A blinking green light on the end of each cannister speaks of some sort of mechanism keeping them in check, with a safety catch on the same end.

"Luckily for us, Braddock is both rich and reasonably paranoid," he says as he sets the canisters down by Tosh.

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Can Han Solo fly a spaceship?" Tosh replied to Nat with a smirk before Hank entered.

He eyed the canisters and said, "Is all that security to keep it from growing or is there more to worry about?"

[Hank McCoy]

"Growing, and in particular recombining," Hank nods.

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Anything in them that would give Miss Minamida trouble? ... assuming she's even in there..."

[Hank McCoy]

"Ultimately? These are not the whole Mastermind system. There may be fragmentary data in them, and if left to their own devices that might have been a problem."

"But of course I'm trusting you two to be careful and do this in a controlled fashion, eh?"

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Of course," Tosh nodded, "Resurrecting a dangerous rogue AI is not on my to-do list."

[Natalie Denisov]

Natalie looks curiously at the crystals, "We'll be sure to document everything."

[Victor Freud]

Victor knocked on the door frame, coffee cup in hand.

"Sup nerds?... and Professor."

[Hank McCoy]

"Mister Freud," the doctor nods.

"...and Mister Stanton?" He adds, looking askance at the cup.

[Will Stanton]

"Quite the mind-reader," Will blurbled.

[Hank McCoy]

"It was that or start questioning what they're serving in the cafeteria."

[Will Stanton]

"Blame Shrinky-Dink over here for picking a coffee cup, I suppose. And engineers for having too much caffeine on hand."

[Victor Freud]

"Would you have preferred the used instant noodle cup?" He set it down on a table, which would give a spot for Will to walk around if they wanted to.

"Speaking of cafeteria, and given how much of a workout you've all had today, do you guys want me to run and get some sandwiches and stuff while yer all workin'?"

[Will Stanton]

Will, still mostly liquidly, peeked over the edge of the coffee cup, looking at the crystal and the accompanying techiness.

"This doesn't look like a sandwich situation. This looks like it'll take a lot longer."

[Victor Freud]

"This seems a little morose for a party sub though."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Well, now that you mention it, I am a bit hungry. But that's more of an 'I turn into a shark' issue."

[Natalie Denisov]

"And I'm not hungry, but thank you for the thought," she says, taking one of the containers from Beast. "Professor, would you authorize clearance for me to the Point's systems? Until we retrieve Ashlie, someone needs to monitor them and it would probably look better if a professor authorized that than if I just took the clearance I need."

[Hank McCoy]

"I don't see a problem with that, but we do need to get you back in your biological body relatively soon. There's concerns about you imprinting on a system you occupy for too long."

[Natalie Denisov]

"This shouldn't be for long, but I need the capabilities of this body if I'm going to see this through as quickly as possible. If you want to make sure the transfer is prepared, I've just authorized Doctor Zhou at Muir to release all the information to you."

[Will Stanton]

"I..don't think we'll be retrieving ASHLIE, Natalie," Will said, carefully. "I cut her free."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"So... What I'm thinking is we... What?"

[Will Stanton]

"There was some kind of..."

"OK, it's all metaphorical in there, but she was in someway bound to the server that was exploding. Physically, that is -- or as physically as you can get in a space like that. I cut her free, and she went off just before everything went kablooie."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"If you cut her free, then she could be anywhere, " he said, denying what Will was implying.

[Will Stanton]

"Multiple anywheres, if this is really part of the crystal computer."

[Hank McCoy]

"Then it's rather fortunate that the Starlight Citadel is connected to everywhere."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"Then she can come back if we fix the crystals," Tosh said.

[Natalie Denisov]

"I know a couple of things about jumping systems, so it's possible that she was able to do that if cut free of her restraints," Natalie says after a moment of staring at Will. "But we won't know if that's true unless we try fixing this."

[Will Stanton]

"Just be careful. We don't want to lose you, as well."

[Natalie Denisov]

"As someone once told me, the great thing about my power is that it fixes things," Natalie says with a smile, "I'm not going anywhere."

[Toshiro Narumi]

"We'll be careful Will. Don't worry," Tosh chimed in.

[Victor Freud]

"See? I told you the brainiacs would be able to fix everything." Vic would have patted Will on the head but... that was kinda awkward at this scale.

"Right, I'm gonna go out and bring back some protein and coffee. You may not need it now, but when the adrenaline wears off you'll be glad to have it." He gun fingered at the group before turning to leave.

[Will Stanton]

"I'd better head out as well, just to start getting recovered. You guys are going to have your hands full."