The sample - stored safely within a cube of the translucent crystalline OmniPower polymer - was set in the middle of his basement work spaces, in a clear, recessed portion of the floor that he'd only recently added, where it connected to the rest of the network matrix. "Diana, begin analysis."
The cool female voice came back immediately. "Yes, sir. Starting now."
Immediately the cube lit up, illuminating the contents - a long, coiled, fleshy length of what looked like it might have been a tongue. Maybe. One end came to a tapered, blunt tip - the other a cauterized stump where the Spartan had sliced through it. Pulsing with clear, light blue light, there was the faintest of hums as his AI began analyzing the sample that had been cut from the Vindicator in a recent confrontation.
As she worked at that, he went back to his desk in the office space and pulled up another file, the analysis of the 'original' virus that had been released into the crowd at the Fine Arts Festival. His sample of it wasn't gleaned from his own men that had contracted the disease, but rather from another source entirely - the Vindicator herself.
He'd been fascinated by this sample since he got hold of it. According to his AI's analysis it was identical to the virus she had tried to infect him with numerous times, and each time the AI had destroyed it with a combination of kinetic, electromagnetic and sonic energies tuned to a specific series of harmonic frequencies that forced the nanite virus' molecular bonds to dissolve, in essence vibrating them at such a high rate that they shattered.
The armor could stand up to that without any difficulty whatsoever - in fact he'd had to use the same technique on the newest incarnation of the Vindicator's suit, albeit at slightly different frequencies. He'd also been experimenting on rats, which the city seemed to have no shortage of, and then tried destroying it.
Unfortunately every attempt had ended the same way - the virus had been destroyed, but so had the host.
Just as it had with her.
He remembered the heart-stopping moment he'd had when he'd thought her dead. It hadn't been a feeling of victory, but rather loss, as though something precious had been stolen. He'd felt that way with every life lost that he couldn't prevent, but never before had it affected him so...personally. There had been a moment of fluttery panic, one that was threatening again to push at the edges of his mind, if only because he didn't know how much time was left.
This virus - the original - was much more elegant than the newer version. Not feeding off of the host, but instead altering them, twisting them to a will not their own. And the only way it could be destroyed also ended up killing the host in every simulation he'd run and every test he'd attempted..
"Analysis complete, sir."
The cool female voice interrupted the train of his thoughts, pulling him back to the here and now, and he nodded, closing the file on the original. "Show me, Di."
The screen lit up with a number of displays - energy readouts, molecular structures, schematics. Vastly different from the original, this design seemed to be almost brutal and savage by comparison, wildly fluctuating. "Di, run a simulation fer me. Let's start at de smallest scale...say a rat, infected wit dis."
The cool female voice comes back immediately. "Working, sir. One moment."
As he waited he sat back, contemplating. He wasn't sure what would come of this, even if he could find a solution to the problem. It had definitely occurred to him that she was just using her feminine wiles and ways to use him to her own advantage. That would make perfect sense, in fact - the old 'more flies with honey' trick at work. Since using brute force hadn't gotten her what she wanted, she had instead abandoned the direct approach and was instead looking for a chink in his figurative armor, a way to ply him to her own ends.
A soft touch instead of a sledgehammer blow, finesse over brute force.
He'd read a story once about a man who'd known a safecracker, and there had been an interesting point that the safecracker had made - that patience, perseverance and finesse could get you what you want out of a safe, rather than simply trying to blow it open and very likely destroy what was inside.
It seemed that he and his lovely counterpart had learned the same lessons, and he was allowing it to work on him.
But then, he'd seen a crack in her own armor as well. He knew there was someone vulnerable under that sadistic, power-hungry exterior, and the armor might be thick and nigh-impenetrable, but - as he well knew - for every problem there was a solution just waiting to be found.
On the other hand, he didn't want to turn her from villainess to heroine...even if it were possible, the world needed villains, needed something for the good to struggle against.
But that was just one reason for trying to solve this problem. He'd loved once or twice before, but never before had he found someone that was truly an equal, and that made the situation that much more unique.
The cool feminine voice pulled him out of his thoughts again. "Simulation complete, sir."
Sitting up again, he directed his attention to the screen. "Show me, Di."
The results streamed across the screen and he looked at them intently, a frown on his features. The results spoke for themselves - first it had been horribly mutated, the virus altering the host in monstrous ways as it sought to create a beast that could feed its voracious appetite for energy, and finding no other energy or sustenance to feed upon, had finally turned on the rodent, consuming it from the inside, draining its body of all its energy within a week.
Fascinating.
Leaning back in his chair, he spoke again to the AI. "All right, Di. Run anot'er one for me..."
The cool female voice came back immediately. "Yes, sir. Starting now."
Immediately the cube lit up, illuminating the contents - a long, coiled, fleshy length of what looked like it might have been a tongue. Maybe. One end came to a tapered, blunt tip - the other a cauterized stump where the Spartan had sliced through it. Pulsing with clear, light blue light, there was the faintest of hums as his AI began analyzing the sample that had been cut from the Vindicator in a recent confrontation.
As she worked at that, he went back to his desk in the office space and pulled up another file, the analysis of the 'original' virus that had been released into the crowd at the Fine Arts Festival. His sample of it wasn't gleaned from his own men that had contracted the disease, but rather from another source entirely - the Vindicator herself.
He'd been fascinated by this sample since he got hold of it. According to his AI's analysis it was identical to the virus she had tried to infect him with numerous times, and each time the AI had destroyed it with a combination of kinetic, electromagnetic and sonic energies tuned to a specific series of harmonic frequencies that forced the nanite virus' molecular bonds to dissolve, in essence vibrating them at such a high rate that they shattered.
The armor could stand up to that without any difficulty whatsoever - in fact he'd had to use the same technique on the newest incarnation of the Vindicator's suit, albeit at slightly different frequencies. He'd also been experimenting on rats, which the city seemed to have no shortage of, and then tried destroying it.
Unfortunately every attempt had ended the same way - the virus had been destroyed, but so had the host.
Just as it had with her.
He remembered the heart-stopping moment he'd had when he'd thought her dead. It hadn't been a feeling of victory, but rather loss, as though something precious had been stolen. He'd felt that way with every life lost that he couldn't prevent, but never before had it affected him so...personally. There had been a moment of fluttery panic, one that was threatening again to push at the edges of his mind, if only because he didn't know how much time was left.
This virus - the original - was much more elegant than the newer version. Not feeding off of the host, but instead altering them, twisting them to a will not their own. And the only way it could be destroyed also ended up killing the host in every simulation he'd run and every test he'd attempted..
"Analysis complete, sir."
The cool female voice interrupted the train of his thoughts, pulling him back to the here and now, and he nodded, closing the file on the original. "Show me, Di."
The screen lit up with a number of displays - energy readouts, molecular structures, schematics. Vastly different from the original, this design seemed to be almost brutal and savage by comparison, wildly fluctuating. "Di, run a simulation fer me. Let's start at de smallest scale...say a rat, infected wit dis."
The cool female voice comes back immediately. "Working, sir. One moment."
As he waited he sat back, contemplating. He wasn't sure what would come of this, even if he could find a solution to the problem. It had definitely occurred to him that she was just using her feminine wiles and ways to use him to her own advantage. That would make perfect sense, in fact - the old 'more flies with honey' trick at work. Since using brute force hadn't gotten her what she wanted, she had instead abandoned the direct approach and was instead looking for a chink in his figurative armor, a way to ply him to her own ends.
A soft touch instead of a sledgehammer blow, finesse over brute force.
He'd read a story once about a man who'd known a safecracker, and there had been an interesting point that the safecracker had made - that patience, perseverance and finesse could get you what you want out of a safe, rather than simply trying to blow it open and very likely destroy what was inside.
It seemed that he and his lovely counterpart had learned the same lessons, and he was allowing it to work on him.
But then, he'd seen a crack in her own armor as well. He knew there was someone vulnerable under that sadistic, power-hungry exterior, and the armor might be thick and nigh-impenetrable, but - as he well knew - for every problem there was a solution just waiting to be found.
On the other hand, he didn't want to turn her from villainess to heroine...even if it were possible, the world needed villains, needed something for the good to struggle against.
But that was just one reason for trying to solve this problem. He'd loved once or twice before, but never before had he found someone that was truly an equal, and that made the situation that much more unique.
The cool feminine voice pulled him out of his thoughts again. "Simulation complete, sir."
Sitting up again, he directed his attention to the screen. "Show me, Di."
The results streamed across the screen and he looked at them intently, a frown on his features. The results spoke for themselves - first it had been horribly mutated, the virus altering the host in monstrous ways as it sought to create a beast that could feed its voracious appetite for energy, and finding no other energy or sustenance to feed upon, had finally turned on the rodent, consuming it from the inside, draining its body of all its energy within a week.
Fascinating.
Leaning back in his chair, he spoke again to the AI. "All right, Di. Run anot'er one for me..."