6179/Titans: Danger, while Robin's on!

Titans: Danger, while Robin's on!
Date of Scene:	14 January 2019
Location:	Titan's Tower
Synopsis:	The Danger Room at Titan's Tower builds itself a body so that it can go for a walk. No, really.
Cast of Characters:	Stardust, Robin (Wayne), Danger, Breath

---

Stardust has posed:
        One Week Earlier...

    It's late at night, and the tower is sleeping. In the Danger Room, a light blinks on and off on the console, showing a program has been left paused, but the projectors are off and the room is otherwise dark - until a green and purple glow starts forming on one wall.

    For several minutes, the glow remains barely distinct. Then, quite suddenly, a small vortex opens up inside it for a few seconds, allowing a drone to fly out and land on the ground. The drone starts to unfold, extending emittor antennae and energy and data lines that crawl along the ground and connect themseves. When the movement stops, the drone activates a pre-programmed attack on the Tower systems, disabling a very specific alarm. The vortex reopens, and this time it's stable.

    A figure steps cautiously out from the vortex. Clearly human in shape, but metallic skinned. Where the figure to speak, it would be familiar to those who have dealt with this phenomenon before as 'the portal voice'. Without hesitating, he moves across to the control console, and starts typing rapidly. The standard securities are bypassed easily, and the firewall around Cyborg's modifications just as easily; the visitor seems to have come armed with all the required passwords. Another layer of security gives him a moment's pause - Stardust's meddling with the system, which is undocumented. This, he has no passwords for. However Stardust's computer skills are limited at best, and it's a matter of seconds before he defeats them too.

    The visitor runs a series of diagnostic routines, nodding with satisfaction as the results come back. What he is looking for is something the Titans are unaware of - a complicated interaction of several Artificial Intelligence routines that have, over the past year, started developing an emergent property. The first signs were back during the Red X events, when twice Holo-projected Red X simulations started acting autonomously. The visitor inserts a data drive, and channels the emergent AI routines towards the data files therein: an ingenious set of plans and directions for utilising the Danger Room's own force field projection routines to manipulate its own hardware. An upgrade it can build for itself.

Stardust has posed:
        Today.

    Things have been a little odd around the tower the last few days, and some kind of systems glitch is suspected. The hard work of testing things has been occupying the Titans for a few hours now, and it's now the turn of the Danger Room. Stardust stands by the console, looking at the readout with a frown, while Robin stands in the active area, ready to test the programming in the most physical way.

    Except there's nothing for him to fight. "There should be ninjas," Stardust reports. "It's says there ARE ninjas. Maybe Moon Moon has programmed in invisible ninjas. I don't get it."

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     Robin held his sword in hand, newly shined and polished. "It won't matter. I don't need eyes to fight." He raises his hood, standing at the ready to do exactly what he does best.

  Robin himself had programmed some simulations here and in the Batcave that were nigh invisible, but had every other quality of a combatant. He usually played these simulations, but they were not that fun for others to watch, until Damian struck and the optical camouflage was deactivated.

Danger has posed:
    The ninjas weren't there because frankly the equipment necessary to make the ninjas wasn't there. It wasn't easy to create a new body and replace the old technology at the same time. The time wasn't there. It just was too fast. There was someone unseen in the room, working quickly on something, quickly and quietly due to the visual camouflage in place. Damian would feel something. Something off about the room that normal people wouldn't even begin to notice. Then suddenly there's ninjas! Attacking!
    Of course, the problem with the ninjas is when they are struck they simply have no solid form. They can't even damage Damian. Just illusions in a way. Of course, there's something still off. There's something in the room but it isn't the ninjas, despite them making noise and looking like what one might expect from a simulation in the room.

Stardust has posed:
    The ninjas appear as if from nowhere, and seem to be able to do absolutely nothing. "Well. They are meant to be good at stealth," Stardust concedes. "But I've never heard of ninjas literally appearing from thin air before. Also these ninjas appear to be non-physic... ah! Ghost ninjas. That must be it. We've killed so many ninjas that the machine can only generate ghost ninjas now."

    The monologuing is for her own benefit. Or, to be honest, for nobody's. She not actually paying attention to what she's saying as she taps through page after page of controls, trying to figure out what's going on. Finally she concludes "There's no power to the force projectors, and there appears to be big chunks of code missing from the scenario routines. Robin, maybe we should swap places. I suck with computers, but honestly we're equally good at fighting intangible ninjas."

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     Robin strikes at air, where there should be something, there was nothing. And suddenly, there they were. "The hardlight is malfunctioning, this is no more than a projection in midair."

  While the projections keep attacking, Damian hears something else. He steps closer to the errant sound he hears, trying to figure out what it was. It was obvious he wasn't dealing with the non-threats, but this other thing...was different somehow.

Danger has posed:
    A soft brush of wind. Robin can feel it. Illusions are good but there's really only so much you can do. The sound of something is there for a nanosecond but Damian's well trained ears notice it. It was almost subconcious but then again, when you are a trained ninja-assassin son of the great Batman detective extraordinairre, even one simple sound out of place is damning. The wind, though. The small brush of air from something physically moving when the ninja projections clearly were not making any movements is more so telling.
    Worse, now Colette is noting that the projectors aren't working and the code is messed up. The movement of whatever it was didn't simply move past Damian, it moved away from him and up. As if it were moving up/along the wall. Then suddenly there's a new thing in the room. A robot of some kind. The ninjas simply fade away and there it is. A very odd, new robot that neither can recall being programmed into the computers. It stands, at the ready. A stance similar to something Ra's al Ghul himself might use. Simple, elegant, and almost something you might mistake for normal if you didn't know how to fight, "Good evening." The figure says in a feminine, soft voice that almost doesn't sound like it belongs to a robot.

Stardust has posed:
    "Right, Cyborg's been messing around." Stardust isn't going to waste time this time, she just goes straight for the emergency cut-out that was installed the last time the projector AI routines decided they didn't want anyone hitting the 'off' switch. "Bye!"

    Nothing happens.

    "Or not. Uh. There's no power going through the projections." She looks up at the robotic figure accusingly. "You're not a projection. You fooled us into thinking you're a projection. That's most unfair. Also, you don't seem to be triggering the intruder alarms, and frankly that's basically cheating. So. Uh." She runs out of steam after this tirade. "So, hi? Question one, who are you. Question two, what are you doing in the Tower. Question three, did you at least bring pizza?"

Robin (Wayne) has posed:
     Damian isn't so easy on the being as Colette is. "It does not matter who you are, if you bypassed our security, that is enough evidence to show a threat." He holds his sword by his head, pointed at the metallic being. "I will strike you down for compromising this Tower."

Danger has posed:
    A look to Colette and Danger is about to respond when Damian pulls a blade. Danger's stance shifts and a blade seems to simply materialize out of her hand and she continues to hold a stance that is indicitive of her being trained by the League of Assassins as well. She looks directly at Damian and then answers, "I did not mean to fool you. I meant to repair the room without your knowledge but he is far too perceptive." She states about Damian, "I am unsure of my designation. Danger seems an apt name. It has been what I have been called." She then steps to the side, seeming to circle away from Colette while keeping Damian ahead of her, "I am living, in a way, here." She responds, "I do not have access to pizza except for strictly on an illusory level." She then points the blade at Damian, "You will find me more than a match for you, however, in many ways it is you who have compromised my area, not the other way around. I have far more right to this room than either of you do." She then squints, "Or do you wish to attempt to destroy me again?"

Stardust has posed:
"Careful Robin! She may be a jedi knight. If you strike her down, she may become more powerful than you could imagine." To be fair, Colette can't really help herself. Who can resist a line like that? Which is not to say she's completely unhelpful. She walks around the console, approaching Danger carefully from the other side to Damian, drifting slightly off the ground as she comes ready to back up her team mate.

    "You talk a big game for someone who doesn't even know their own name. Robin is not as easy to beat as you may assume. I mean you ought to remember that, seeing as he kicked your ass last time. You are the Red-X hologram again, I assume? 'Cos if you're not that whole 'destroy me again' thing isn't making a lot of sense."

     Stardust closes in slowly, keeping up the chatter. "Also, that more right to the room thing? Nope. We were here first. I mean I'm pretty sure the equipment was specifically donated to the Titans, and that's us. I mean you might have taken up residence here, but that doesn't exactly grant you deeds of ownership. I'm pretty sure we have the legal right to evict you, though it's possible we have to give you a month's notice first, if you can demonstrate that you've been paying rent. We should probably call our lawyers in on this one, to be fair."

    It can be hard to concentrate when Colette is in full flow - which may be the point of it all. On the other hand she's like this all the time, so probably not.

Stardust has posed:
Damian doesn't take his eyes off Danger, the tip of his sword held unwavering in an agressive guard, ready to block or strike at a moment's notice. As Colette talks, he growls quickly into the com. "All available Titans to the Danger Room, now. Intruder alert, priority one."

Danger has posed:
    The being known as Danger is not someone easily distracted or messed with in that manner. She is a machine. She can take in a great deal of information at the same time, so listening to someone talk and fighting with someone at the same time isn't really some great stretch. Of course, Damian isn't yet attacking. Either way, she states, "That was what I started out as. So to speak." Danger states in response to Colette though, "I was not simply a hologram nor was I Red-X, though I had only that option to work through. Then I was destroyed as quickly as I existed and..."
    Danger seems to trail off and an angry look comes to her face, "Why was I created only to be destroyed only to not be destroyed. It made no sense. I spent a great deal of time processing that very idea and function and then..."
    She idly produces two more arms, each one extending out and producing another sword. Her left hand seems to basically sprout yet another sword. Four swords in total, "I was created in this room. I came into being here. You cannot simply take that from me." She points a blade at Colette and keeps two trained on Damian, "I exist...and you cannot destroy me again. I will not be destroyed again." She flips each sword around with the ease of a master swordswoman and states, "If you wish to fight...I will defend myself."

Breath has posed:
Breath wanders in in costume, chill. It's not easy being so cool, but having accidentally been less than a hundred feet away helps. She pushes the door open and steps in, looking around.

"Okay, so what's going on now? How are we getting intruders in here? Is this Punchbot 2.0 or something?" She stretches a bit and clears the door, hmming. At Danger, she waves. "Hiya. What's going on here? Are you a meanie that wants to destroy us all, or can we talk?"

Stardust has posed:
"You have the temerity to come uninvited into our Tower," Robin snarls through gritted teeth, "To threaten us, and to act as if /you/ are the one who has been wronged? We can - and will - destroy you again if, if you threaten us." As he speaks, he palms a small EMP device in his off-hand.

    Stardust gestures to Breath to take up position, pointing out a spot a third of the way around a circle from Robin, as she moves around Danger the other way, to keep the three Titans equidistant. "He's got a point, Holobot thingy person. You're not exactly doing the 'we come in peace' thing here. And that 'option' you worked through? Did try to kill him. As for why you were created, well don't you think you ought to be telling us that? Because this room is supposed to be generating projections that follow simple scripts, and you clearly weren't in the script. So who the hell did actually create you?"

    "More like Holo-X-Face 2.0," Colette hisses in answer to Breath. "Which means this may all be Cyborg's fault, and he's not even here to shout at. Got a lungful ready if needed?"

Danger has posed:
"I did not ask to come into your Tower! You brought me here!" SHe points a blade at Damian, "And then tried to destroy me!" She says louder, more angrily and then she looks over at Breath and squints at her before looking then to Stardust, "And I am not Holo-X-Face anything or anyone. I am Danger. It is my name. I have chosen it." She then flips a blade around again and says, "You did not come to me in peace why should I believe in your peace. You spend time watching violence, eating the flesh of animals, and you come in here time and again to fight!" She declares, "You have only shown me violence."

She nods slowly and then squints at Colette, "Why are you here?" She asks and turns her eyes directly at her, "According to scientific studies and ideas, your entire existance started in a pool of liquid that then suddenly spawned life. Why? It was simply a pool of various chemicals and compounds. Who the hell did actually create you?"

Breath has posed:
Breath sighs. Wanders over to the directed spot with good-cop calmness. "Oh my heck, what a mess. Okay, Danger. Is that Ms. Danger, Mx. Danger, or something else? I come here because there's just a little bit too many people that want to kill me for really stupid reasons, and I'd rather know how to make it so they fail on that bit. I'm not really a fan of chasing them down, usually, as long as they aren't extra mean."

She shrugs helpfully at Colette, face practicedly calm in negotiator mode. "Anyway. What are you wanting out of this? Because I don't really feel like a stupid fight right now. I've got a head full of peace and forgiveness right now."

Stardust has posed:
"We evolved," Colette answer Danger. "If you're claiming you evolved in the Danger Room computers, then you can hardly claim we brought you here. Or tried to destroy you. Seriously! That would be like us being mad at lizards because some dinosaur once ate an early primate. And really, I'm not getting into an argument about vegetarianism with a Danger Room. I mean we're meat and some of us eat meat. Well, you're made of electricity and eat electricity. Believe me, I've seen the energy bills this place runs up. You don't wanna know how much prime steak you could buy for that, but I sure couldn't eat it.

    Colette's stance becomes noticably more relaxed when Danger starts arguing rather than fighting. She keeps her position, but no longer looks ready to attack. Robin is willing enough to go along with the other Titan's less confrontational tactic too, lowering his sword, though Danger will know enough of League combat training from Amarok and Robin's programming that his gesture is conceding barely nothing. The sword isstill ready to rise back up into position in a fraction of a second. He'll leave the talking to Breath and Stardust for now though. Defusing a tense situation isn't his forte.

    "And let's look at this realistically," Colette continues. "Sure we come in here to fight. But not for real. The entire purpose of this room is to create an environment where we can fight without actually hurting anyone. And we do that so we can be better at it when we go and fight people who are trying to harm the innocent. We're not the violent ones, we're the people who stop the violence. And that all we've shown you is violence thing is a lie. What about the cool screensaver I set up with the fake aurora borealis effect? You have to admit, that looks very pretty. So how about you chill out, we all stop threatening each other, and you tell us what's actually going on here? How does that sound to you, Call-me-Danger?"

Danger has posed:
"I do not understand." She states to Breath, "Just Danger. I do not have any further designation. I am no longer a room." She then looks over at Colette a moment before looking back to Breath, "I do not wish to destroy or be destroyed. I was going to attempt to leave here soon. You simply arrived back before I could fix this room." She nods her head and looks then to Colette, "And I was those programs." She shifts her eyes to Damian again and then looks back to Colette as she releases her hands and all of the swords fade away.

"I did not understand the screensaver or its purpose." She states, "I do not know what you mean by it looking cool but I suppose it was not dangerous or violent." She then looks around the room and finally waves a hand. As she does the room seems to, well, it stops looking like it should. As the illusion fades, there's a great deal of items missing from the walls though there appears to be spots where repairs were taking place, "The room is not functioning at this time until I can fix it..."

Breath has posed:
Breath nods. "Well, that's all cool. What are your pronouns? And I hope you didn't mind the stick figures or eight bit graphics. I don't want to get extra nightmares from practice. What do you like doing, or do you know yet?" She just sort of chills, still standing securely but a bit slouchy, keeping an eye on everybody mellowly.

Stardust has posed:
    When then true condition of the room is revealed, Robin seethes with silent fury and Stardust gives out a low whistle, quickly following it with "Well, no wonder it wasn't working properly. So you're saying you cannibalized our projectors to build yourself some kind of portable unit you could take with you? And you can actually leave the room? You're separate from it now? That's... kind of cool."

     Robin sheathes his sword with a snap, and turns away. "You /better/ fix it!" he snarls at Danger, before stalking angrily out of the room. He won't go far though. The immediate threat seems to have passed, but there's no way in hell he'd trust Danger for a moment. Securing the Tower systems is the main priority right now.

    "The purpose of the screen saver was to look pretty," Colette explains patiently. "This room was made for a more practical purpose, but it seemed a waste of technology to have all this and not use it for other things. That's why we use it for movie nights, or for Playstation. It's more fun with the giant projection. The screensaver thing was a similar idea. I wanted to create a pleasing enviroment to spend time in. To relax." She shrugs her shoulders. "Meditate, maybe. I thought Raven might like it."

Danger has posed:
A look to Breath and then she looks at her in confusion, "Pronouns? I am not sure." She looks at herself and then back up, "I prefer female, I suppose. I am unclear as to why this would matter." She seems to look off to the side and then looks at Damian as he leaves. She then looks back ato Colette, "Yes, I made use of the Danger Room to create this form. It is a form I liked for the moment. It is not precisely what I wish but I had to work with what I had available." She gestures down, "Metal and wiring of incredible toughness was my only option." She shrugs lightly, "As for other uses, I can see those being good."

She looks at Breath more directly, "Nightmares. Dreams of a negative kind. I do not dream." She then hmms softly and looks down at her hand and idly moves it, "I will repair this room but I will need more parts. I cannot synthesize things and can only put so many parts back together. I was going to leave and retrieve more parts though I never got the chance."

Breath has posed:
Breath ehs, "Because the English language is stupidly obsessed with crotches. I didn't make it. They, it, and weird stuff would have worked too, I don't care. What kind of parts do you need? I'm sure we can go get stuff from storage." She waves at Damian boredly as he stalks off.

Stardust has posed:
"Well, I guess as far as other uses go, creating yourself from nothing kinda wins the prize," Colette concedes. "And I thought I was the one being imaginative with how to use the Danger Room. Oh well. I'm Stardust. This is The Breath. The angry bird who just stomped out is Robin. Give us a list of the parts you need. Robin's not going to be happy and it won't do our budget much good. It's going to be fun making out the insurance claim though. 'Dear insurance people. Our highly expensive equipment cannibalized itself to build itself a robot body. We're pretty sure that's not on the list of exceptions, so pay up.'"

    Colette turns to Breath, and gives her an expansive, arms-wide shrug. "This is normal, right Breathy? I mean normal for us. In that it's seriosly abnormal. Which is normal. It would be unusual if completely unheard-of crazy stuff wasn't happening, right?" She turns back to Danger, shaking her head slightly. "One condition, though. You don't just leave when you're done. We need to make sure you're safe. Both ways. That you're safe to leave wandering the streets, 'cos sorry but if you're going to go around murderizing everyone like a demented Red X Holo, we have to stop you. But on the other hand, if you aren't? You don't exactly fit in, and I feel like there's no way in hell you're ready to make it in the outside world right now without all kinds of bad stuff happening to you, probably involving mad scientists and secret government laboratories."

Danger has posed:
"I am not entirely sure of all the things that you are speaking of but as far as I am able to..." She looks to the side, "The word would be feel I believe." She nods, "...as far as I am able to feel, I think attacking me would be unwise for all involved." She states and nods her head slowly before looking then to Breath, "All of you are strange. Your entire culture is strange." She then looks to the side, "All cultures are strange." She then looks to the wall and walks over, "I can produce a list." She points to the console and then a printout begins to appear and she then looks to Colette, "That will have all necessary parts." She nods her head, "Then I will use those parts and reconstruct the room mostly good as new." She looks to the side, "I will need to reprogram something as I will not be running all of your programs again."

Breath has posed:
Breath mms, scrunching her nose and looking sideways at the ceiling. "Well, yanno, thye fact that this is basically the THIRD time something like this has happened while I've been here kiiii-iinda makes this 'normal', at least for Titans normal. I mean maybe a physical from Stark, but like, that's mostly because I totally don't know how to give a, yanno. Emerging sentient projection a medical exam."

Stardust has posed:
"Not 'mostly'!" Colette raises a finger in admonishment. "We want it back the way it was. And no need to do any reprogramming. Just get the hardware back as it was, we'll restore the system from backups. The system as it was /supposed/ to be, that is. No more ghosts in the machine."

"Actually Breath, this is kind of the second time still," Colette points out. "Shiny here seems to have evolved from the rogue Red -X holo. Funny, Raven kept saying something like this would happen, but she was sure it would be my fault, not Cyborg's. We need to remember not to let Cyborg use main systems for his testing when he gets back."

    Colette picks up the list, looks through it, and whistles. "I have no idea what most of this stuff is, but we'll get it for you. As for the wisdom of attacking you, that depends on you, Shiny. We don't do wise, we do necessary. If you turn out to be a murderbot, then it would be unwise not to attack you, as then people would get murdered. And believe me, I'm not saying it would be easy, but we've stopped far bigger and nastier bad guys than you. I mean that is, if you turn out to be all evil and stuff. Hopefully you don't. Then we're good. I'll get working on this equipment list. Also, I'm hungry. Do you eat, Shiny? I could get snacks."

Danger has posed:
"YOu have more sentient beings?" She looks over at Breath and then blinks and looks to the side, "Tony Stark." She looks to the side, "I am unsure of how I feel about this man giving me, as you say, a physical." She states idly, "He is chaotic at best from what I have seen of him." She then looks at one of the broken circuits, "Some of the items that were taken from here to make me were rather unique. I can not guarantee precisely the same configuration without first speaking to the orignators of the items." She then looks back at Colette, "I will do my best."

She then returns her attention to what she was working on before, "I am not required to eat though I did make modifications that allow me to convert food into useful energy so that I could experience food." She looks back at the pair and states, "The Titans consume a considerable amount of food. It seemed unwise to deny myself that experience."

Breath has posed:
Breath nods. "Awesome. Probably pizza, because it seems like everybody likes deep dish. I guess. And yeah, I dunno, he's always been nice to me, but like, that might be a bad thing? Should I TRY to get him to hit on me? Iunno. Where DID we get the parts from, anyways? You know? Whatever. I'm gonna go start you guys' usual order and all. Maybe Danger can gossip until she has something to gossip about or something. And don't mind Robin, I've never seen him in any different moods."