15277/Subway Survey 2 : Spider edition.

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Subway Survey 2 : Spider edition.
Date of Scene: 30 June 2023
Location: The future site of GIRL? A subway station somewhere between New York and Gotham.
Synopsis: Nadia shows Gwen the potential new GIRL HQ. They talk about what food the base will have. And why it's still not really a great idea to introduce rat killing super critters. Also Nadia fails to grasp the benefits of teaching a turtle how to be a ninja.
Cast of Characters: Wasp (Pym), Ghost Spider




Wasp (Pym) has posed:
Since the first visit Nadia and Harper made to the potential GIRL HQ location there's been a little work done. The tunnel has been cleaned up as much as a disused underground tunnel can be. Temporary lights have been installed and some ribbons have been used to mark the boundaries of the property. Not to mention a full AR overlay having been uploaded onto the GIRL computer system.

Nadia hasn't done any of the cleaning herself. That task was delegated to some specially bred insects. But she has taken the time to load in various different layouts into the AR overlay. Not to mention creating the AR overlay in the first place.

She could in theory be giving the GIRLs a virtual tour to save on travel time. But there's something about being in the physical location which helps people get a feel for the place. (Plus if anyone turns out to have an unknown fear of being unground it's an excellent way to find out!)

"So this is it!" Nadia says gesturing around with her hand. "What do you think? Neat huh? Just download the smartphone app and hold your phone up, then you'll be able to see all the layouts I've been considering!"
Ghost Spider has posed:
Gwen's first reaction to hearing that the GIRL headquarters was slated to be in an abandoned subway tunnel was enthusiastic. A born New Yorker, she grew up hearing tales of how cool and spooky abandoned subway tunnels are, and now she's here in one.

She's allowed to be here too!

"This is dope," Gwen says, hefting her phone and running the AR app. She swivels around, taking in the layouts. "You're amazing, Nadia. This is gonna be so cool."
Wasp (Pym) has posed:
"You don't think it's a little... supervillain-y?" Nadia wonders, pacing up and down the platform. This time, with much of the dirt cleaned up, she's wearing her street clothes. A Summer dress that's unapologetically pink. There might be frills too. "Like I told Harper being underground does give us a /lot/ of advantages when it comes to cosmic ray shielding. The deeper we are the better really! But we can always get around that with advanced meta-materials and Pym particle tech."

Nothing like shrinking thick steel plates to paper thickness with the proper treatments. Then again there's nothing to stop her using those materials /and/ plenty of earth!

"It should be really quiet. So we can play music without worrying about neighbours. Really the only real issues are the air conditioning systems and.... all the rats."
Ghost Spider has posed:
"It's way more Ninja Turtle than supervillain," Gwen answers as she spins about with her phone. "I mean, it'll probably be less ... gritty when it's all done, but the thought is there!" Lest anyone forget that Gwen is a giant dweeb. Even if the thoughts of cosmic rays are kind of beyond her. They're there all the time, so why worry about them?

The Fantastic Four would like a word.

"I figured you'd have little robots, or make something with a frequency to chase away the rats. We might want to think about flood prevention too. These old tunnels can get pretty waterlogged if we get nasty storms."
Wasp (Pym) has posed:
"Who would train a turtle in ninjitsu?" Nadia wonders. "Surely they'd be too small? Personally I'd genetically engineer them to have some kind of turret weapon. Make them into little organic tanks..." She frowns, like she's working out just how she'd create such a monster, and then shrugs. "I don't think it'd be a very good idea. Turtles carry a lot of diseases and I bet they'd be a nightmare to direct."

The FF would know, better than anyone, that cosmic ray shielding is no joke.

"Well... I discussed options with Harper. We tentatively agreed bioengineering a super predator that eats rats would be unwise." Nadia herself isn't much of a robotics expert. Her main focus is on biotech and physics. "But I'm sure with enough money Harper could create a rat hunting robot army.... Or we use a mixture of sonics and biological based deterrents to just drive them away. Hopefully not in a way which upsets the neighbours."

She blinks a few times. It seems drainage was not something she'd been considering in her plans. "That is... a very good point. I can put in an emergency system where water is shrunk and stored in tanks? I can get a lot of capacity in a relatively small space."
Ghost Spider has posed:
Gwen takes a deep breath as she prepares to explain thirty plus years of Ninja Turtle lore, but she stops herself. She just lets Nadia follow her own train of thought and hop topics. This is how you Friend at an ultra genius. Just let them do their thing.

"Sonics and some of Harper's robots are probably the best bet. Probably shouldn't make a spider the size of a Golden Retriever to eat the rats." Of course she went to a Spider first. "And, yeah, that'd probably work. Especially since, well, good luck pumping the water anywhere during a flood anyway. Since the last time it happened, the tunnels were flooding bad enough they couldn't be used."
Wasp (Pym) has posed:
"Given sufficient energy and preparation I can size shift things to give a functionally infinite volume of storage space," Nadia says confidently. Probably not an idle boast given her personal lab is a whole castle in a necklace. "Besides there's plenty of useful things we can do with a large volume of water. Once it's been cleaned up that is. Subway tunnel flood water is probably /really/ gross. So the cleaning would have to be astronaut grade before we could consume it."

She paces back and forth some more.

"I intend for us to be totally self sufficient in terms of power, water and pretty much everything we can be sufficient in. At least once we're established."

Her own monstrosity of choice? Giant killer wasps. Able to swarm and clear the tunnels of all rodent life. Before probably becoming self aware and trying to take over the city. Because that's how it always goes with genetic abominations intended to carry out pest control.
Ghost Spider has posed:
"I'm down with self sufficiency. The only thing we'll need from the outside is internet. And chopped cheese sandwiches from the bodega." Gwen is, at least, a woman who knows what she wants. What she wants is an unhealthy fried sandwich.

For the uninitiated a chopped cheese is the unholy love child of a cheeseburger and a cheesesteak.

"We can do this, Nadia. All of us working together can get it done. Teamwork makes the dream work. ... That's what the kids say." She sighs, shaking her head. "I'm so out of touch."
Wasp (Pym) has posed:
"We can build a robot that makes us food," Nadia points out. "Just not Russian MRE beetroot soup. I have lived off that stuff for years and while it is healthy it's... not good." She pulls a face. If she's honest most of the military rations she 'borrowed' when she fled the Red Room were awful. But nutritious. All the enjoyable things tended to be reserved for the shadowy leadership ranks.

Her own imagination likely produces a very different version of what a chopped cheese sandwich is. Likely quite a literal one. Just two slices of bread and some chopped up bits of cheese.

"You think you're out of touch? I grew up in a Siberian bunker," she points out. Sticking her tongue out. "You're in a band I thought that meant you're automatically cool!"
Ghost Spider has posed:
"MRE's are out. That's fine. And we'll have to teach the robot how to do things the Oky way. We get enough exercise, we won't die."

Gwen is inadvertently sending Nadia down a YouTube hole she may never recover from.

"And yeah, I'm in a band, it's true, but that doesn't automatically make me cool. I mean, I have a Masters in Biochem. Not really super cool." She smiles real big, leaning closer to Nadia. "I'm just a dork who's really good at pretending. That's all."