Apparently facial modelling was something of a challenge, requiring a breadth of knowledge and just a smidgen of creativity. Since it looked like he was going to be busy, he had Era take control of the Phantom and run it over to the new storage shed to run some checks on the new gear.
The drone's advanced sensors should easily pick up on any technological trackers hidden inside the electronics, but given his recent conversation with Division, he was wondering if he shouldn't ask Naiad for help with detecting magic before bringing so much foreign equipment into his lab.
After a moments thought, he decided that Manticore didn't seem the type to resort to magic, he'd be more likely to plant an actual bug in his systems that released some sort of trackable pheromone, and if one of the guys wanted his address so badly that they went to the trouble of planting a magical tracer, they could just as easily drop one on one of his drones while he wasn't paying attention.
Happy, or at least complacent, with his precautions, he focused on the two faces he was trying to recreate, each challenging in its own unique way. John Doe because his face was so damaged from the attack and the fire, and Revenant because his spirit body was always a little blurry to Justin's scans.
He didn't really need a finely detailed model of Revenant's face to produce a helmet, but Justin had gotten a little carried away in the challenge, telling himself that it might be a useful skill to have in the future. Apparently it's good to try new things, he thought, looking in pleasure at all the skill xp he was receiving in design, coding, biology and art.
And by the time he'd finished, Era had cleared all the new equipment and piloted the drone back to the lab. Since she was now free for more scut work, he forwarded her a couple of iterations of John Doe's face with different hairstyles, and asked her to see if she could find a match. While she did that, Justin fiddled with his graphene printer so that it would accept a rubbery plastic substitute, and began to print a life-size Revenant head. If nothing else, they could always use it for target practice.
Feeling good about the morning's progress, Justin decided to tick some more stuff off his mental list. First he reviewed the grant proposals received by KASSE, accepting a couple of the more promising ones, along with the application he'd put in for Weyland Solar.
With the promise of a multimillion dollar grant, he was finally able to put together and send off an employment package for Amelia Turner. Hopefully she wouldn't keep him waiting so he'd know if he needed to keep looking.
Next he got a new nano-factory up and running, seeding it with the remains of the last one and smoothing it along a little with his powers. While finishing that up, he noticed the old PC in the corner, and finally remembered to check in on Chompers, who had apparently been absolutely fine hibernating while the power was off, but was suddenly ravenous now he'd been woken up. Dodging the snapping jaws, Justin wondered, not for the first time, why he'd kept the little code monster.
Since he was going to need more room for all his new equipment in the lab, he ordered Ira to move Chompers into the basement, and asked him to start sorting out all the junk while he was down there. He didn't think the surly program would get much done on his own, but at least Justin wouldn't have to listen to him complaining about the mess for the hundreth time.
Justin looked around the lab for something new to focus on, finally realising that what he was really looking for was a distraction.
He hadn't wanted to admit it, but the days trapped down in Manticore's lab had left him feeling isolated, lonely and skittish. No one noticing he was missing had been a bit of a blow, even though Justin knew enough to admitt it was his own fault. What did he expect when he kept everyone at arm's length, only interacting when he wanted, on his own terms.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
It was only now, looking back on his time trapped in the cave, that Division's decision to leave a clone down there took on new meaning. At the time he hadn't questioned that Division was worried about Manticore returning, but why would he? He'd been gone for weeks and was busy hiding out with the Jackals. Remembering the conversations about the team and the recounting of training with fresh eyes, he realised that it had been to keep him company, to keep his spirits up while he'd been trapped down there. And despite all his intelligence, he hadn't noticed, hadn't appreciated what Division was doing.
Justin was not good with people. It was no new revelation, but Justin repeated it to himself all the same. Time to get more involved, he thought, feeling better with the resolution. Before he could come up with a reason to back out, he contacted Division, asked to be put back on the patrol rota, and for information on the team's meeting and training schedule.
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A little buzzed, and a little nervous at his new resolution, Justin decided that if he was serious about getting back into the field, then he really needed to work on the mark II combat drones. Something he'd been putting off, possibly in the vague hope that he'd somehow manage to put together a robotic body first.
It wasn't that he minded remote piloting the drones, but he'd began to feel a little like the team's camera crew. Perhaps this feeling of isolation had been building for longer than he thought.
Justin grinned, a strange thing to accomplish without a face. It was time to start working on a mobile core. Something he'd been thinking about and planning ever since he'd decided he wanted a robot body in the first place. A 'black box' to transfer his essence into so he could actually feel like he was taking part. Originally his plan had been to develop a compact nano-server, hence one of the reasons he was so frustrated with the nano-fabs continued failures.
But even if the nano factories had worked the very first time, developing that kind of compact core would have needed multiple leaps forward in electronics, energy delivery, and heat venting technologies, all of which would have cost a fortune in money and time to develop, and even without pushing ahead, Justin was very nearly broke again.
He grinned again as he considered the new avenue that had opened up for him. Now he just needed to come up with a containment system for his quantum node, something that would work to carry and protect the sensitive system so that Justin didn't need to concentrate on it as much. And with him actually onbard a drone, power became a non-issue, opening up new avenues for weapons and propulsion.
If he was going to meld his power into his technology, he first needed to understand it better. He began the process by projecting his visualised processors while staying safely within his man-made server. Then exposing them to alternating bursts of EM, sound and radiation fields. Testing for stability and scatter as the fields moved and fluctuated.
After the fourth time the system unravelled on him, he decided he was eventually going to want a safety system inside the core with him. Something that could kick in at a basic level to keep him alive if his virtual construct broke down, maybe even the digital equivalent of an escape pod he thought in amusement.
He sighed as Era interrupted him, wondering what bad news she was bringing this time. Instead she brought the welcome news that she had an identy for the unfortunate John Doe.
Justin looked over the man's missing persons report in surprise. John, his actual first name, was pretty much an unknown. A mild mannered IT worker with no family or friends, no record, and a surprisingly sparse online presence. He was exactly the kind of man a smart person would use as a body double for an escaping convict. Which was probably why Justin was so frustrated with the answer. Feeling mutinous, he decided to check more deeply into John Vincent, looking for a connection, a reason, even a shared cup of coffee, anything that would explain his choice as a sacrifice.
He hadn't really expected to find anything. In real life random things happened all the time, there was no web of connections, no master plan. Just chance, coincidence and a whole heap of bad luck.
But this was a game, and someone on the other side was playing it too. Which is why Justin wasn't all that surprised when he found evidence pointing to John Vincent's private life as a hero, and a pretty solid connection to the Heroes League.