Safety & Confidentiality [K414]

Ah, and here he was now.

Let’s see here… metal. Lots of glossy metal. ‘Metallic’ didn’t seem to cut it because, dang, that’s a lotta metal. A gold visor, a glorious mane of white hair, no power signature… yep, that fit dead-on with one of the descriptions Cheri had been supplied with. She knew for sure that this was the real deal, and that this was the mercenary called:

”Ah, 4K. A pleasure.” Cheri ignored what he was saying about flesh and veins and whatnot, only smiling and playing along and whatnot. Best not to alienate. ”Indeed, lots of zeni. Alas, though, for while you will be paid for this, you will not be paid as much as you would be paid for a job. No, that comes later, if you do well.”

Cheri took a good look at the merc. As she did, the programmable armour of her clothes transformed and became the standard battlesuit she was used to. ”You see, we tuffles have been swindled before. A mercenary of your calibre would only be applied to especially important missions, and it is precisely those missions we’d rather not be screwed up. So, we’ve developed our own system of vetting potential mercenaries, which has the added benefit of determining their particular skills. Tell me, what do you know of the political situation on Plant?”

Alas, Kala had said that he didn’t do fights in advance, and that was only one post before. But, alas, in this business, the ones who hired you either had to make absolute sure that you were up for the job or it wasn’t nearly important enough for them to pay you any meaningful amount for. That was showbiz, baybbeeeeeeeeeee..! Or, uh, no, um… mercbiz. Yes, mercbiz.

Cheri could see that 4K was remarkably agreeable, rather supportive of tuffles in general and rather opposed to saiyans as a whole. She could understand this position coming from many places, places that either valued tuffle or ingenuity or places with beef against saiyans for more personal reasons. A tuffle, definitely, a Heran, certainly... but 4K was a robotic mercenary, for whom zeni was the goal. In other words, she felt 4K might not have been entirely genuine with her.

”A High Distinction.” If that wasn’t full marks, it was decently close.

”You’re keen to boast, I can see. The Great Ape form is quite a bit to deal with, as I am sure you’re aware. You are sure you can take on powers that grand?” She figured the answer was a ‘yes’, so, if she were legitimately interested in the answer, she could’ve just guessed. But, with everything, there was more to it: for one, there was the information that could be gleaned from how he answered, and the new questions that became available with the shift in tone that the question brought. Conversations, after all, were just word games.

”If you were the next evolutionary step of warfare,” Cheri began, ”you wouldn’t need to be paid for your services.” Cheri smiled in a manner that was, on the surface, friendly, but ultimately there to keep 4K humble (if such a thing was even possible).

”I have seen how you move, and my scouter sees how energy moves about your body when you move it. This, combined with my assessment of you, is all that I require from you. And don’t worry, regardless of where that assessment leads, you are being paid for this meeting.” Cheri looked off into the distance… it truly was a beautiful city. ”If you wish this done, then it is done, and you are free to leave with the easiest paycheck you’ve ever made.” Not literally, not physically, not immediately; but, indeed, if he were to leave now, he would, indeed, get his paycheck. Easy as that.

But, still. Done so soon?

”Of course, if you so wish, and only if you so wish, we may spar. And after this, or possibly instead of this,” she showed 4K her arm, with her battlesuit over it, continually change and morph as her nanotechnology, the programmable matter, quickly changed forms: blaster, shield, sword, rocket launcher, pen, so on and so forth, ”I could show you what we can do you for in other respects.” She would move slightly away if she felt he would try to eat any of it.

”You wish.” Cheri, alas, was not the sort to check anyone out. And if she did check someone out, she did not mean to. And if she did mean to, then, well, lucky you. But she didn’t so, alas...

Hm, he wanted to be made from nanotechnology after this body died? She could understand something like that, nanotechnology was a good bit harder to kill. The technology that would allow such a thing— programmable matter that was sentient in the same way that a tuffle was— was promising, and possibly even currently attainable, but a risky business indeed; even more risky than it sounded, and it already sounded pretty damn risky. Integrating it into a solid android, though, that was a whole lot easier. Hopefully he wasn’t just going to eat and waste it. ”I shall assume that’s meant to be a compliment.” Cheri had no idea what a ‘pope’ was. ”So I assume you want to skip right to that? To ’see what we can do for you’? I imagine it could be quite useful to someone like you. Even without going through the tricky business of replacing your body proper, even with only using it as an additional tool, programmable matter would allow you to form just about any weapon in but a moment with only a thought.”

woops I forgot you had Antisense mb; it totally skipped my mind. Retroactively, then, she was bluffing? Sure let’s go with that. Anyway, if 4K goes along with this, this'd be a cool reason to get a Programmable Matter UT or possibly it could be the background for the theme of a future transformation? Up to you. Either way, the installing itself would happen off-screen.

Cheri watched on as 4K went on something of a small, impromptu monologue about the petty limitations of a solid, cohesive body. He asked if she could relate, and… no, of course not, she much liked her body as it was, thank you very much. She viewed her programmable matter as a tool, and an especially useful one at that, but she would never even consider sacrificing her… ‘selfness’, if you will, for the power such technology would bring unless such power was totally and thoroughly required in saving her people. coughforeshadowingcough. Still, she wouldn’t want to alienate her esteemed guest, so she smiled and nodded. Convincingly, too, for she was a master at this sort of thing.

”’Strongbone’s law’, ey?” It sounded like a Vegetan surname, but it also sounded like it could have come from a scientist, engineer or philosopher. Cheri knew that saiyan Vegetan scientists and engineers tended to usually be motivated but lacking in training and talent, but propped up by their government alongside hired minds to prove that saiyans could be as smart as anyone else; and philosophers, well, anyone could be a philosopher. Even stupidity has wisdom in it. ”Indeed. If a chain is as weak as its weakest link, it is best to maximise one’s potency per link. I suppose you picked that up in a Vegetan textbook somewhere?” She regarded this detail as suspicious; it was not a widely known concept, for she did not know it, and yet a mercenary from outside of Plant entirely referred to a supposed law which, judging by its name, seemed to be Vegetan in origin.

And, yet, despite his rambling, 4K still seemed more interested in eating the nanotech than integrating it. ”If you mean to eat my technology for the joy of it or for sustenance, I refuse. If that is your means of integrating its technology into your own, I regret to inform you that it won’t work. What you’ll need is unimprinted nanotech, and then to have it imprint onto you.” Tuffle technology tended to be quite secure. While they wouldn't bother on the cheaper ones, mid-to-higher end blasters would refuse to fire if used by a saiyan or known Vegetan merc, for example. Bio-signs were just the beginning.

”A manner of saying.” Cheri, in referring to a textbook, did not refer to a literal book of text. In the same way that a genius who first codified a new field of understanding was said to have written the book on it, and in the same way that one could read a paper of a subject even when it was so rarely actually written on paper, the archaic terminology has been stuck to in a few certain respects and carried through the ages even when it was no longer literally accurate. ”I imagine a concept so simple has been codified by a thousand different cultures under a thousand different names.”

4K’s interest in the nanotechnology the tuffles could provide did not waver. ”I will look into the possibility.” She was not going to look into the possibility of nanomachine vitamins. No, not even if their pills looked like kid-friendly animated characters. ”Well, in any case, you have continued to demonstrate interest, and I have the social means and connections available to me to bring about such an eventuality.” She would take a few steps to the nearest street, a more symbolic motion than anything concrete. ”If you’d follow me? I have some associates at a nanotech manufactory who may be able to assist you.” And so she would walk, ideally with 4K following.