#got a stack of failures with various programs

[commodorez]

This printer appears to be working properly.

[more-than-a-princess]

Sonia sank into the chair, accepting the glass of water he offered with her uninjured hand. A kind but foolish gesture, it wasn't the island's climate or too much wine that had flustered her. Gundham hurried through the cleaning while she sipped, his words echoing through her mind.

"You needn't worry about my life if they take yours."

As if she hadn't spent the majority of the Neo World Program consumed with that very emotion. Of course she worried for her new friends as they were picked off one-by-one, by each other. And to a degree, herself, and the disappointment she'd face as a failure of the Novoselic Royal Family if she never came home. But mostly, she'd worried about him: after how easily she was drawn to his multicolored eyes and the chirps of the Devas that lived within the folds of his scarf, Sonia Nevermind had been in a constant state of worrying over Gundham Tanaka. Not for a moment had she ever considered that he would kill her the first moment he got, or anyone else for that matter. The latter had been proven wrong of course, but the former...

The former had been what kept her going, at least beyond the duty to her family, country, and citizens. The certainty she felt in her heart that her life was safe and secure in his hands was warmer than the sun and more comforting than even the most delicious chocolate, but it was the deep baritone of his voice and the intensity of his gaze that kept her awake at night. No one had taken refuge in the library save for Komaeda, and perhaps it was his talent at play that ensured their paths never crossed. Sonia felt more at home amongst the aisles of books than she did in her own cabin, surrounded by the finery she'd come to expect from Novoselic Castle, and after she'd pilfered the hotel for extra blankets and pillows she found herself truly at ease in her little handmade fort in the stacks, her companions of hardcovers and her own imagination. What she'd say if she ever heard him tell her he loved her, how she'd show him her love in return. It was the only time during the killing game that she found relaxation, and soon after her fingers dipped beneath the hemline of her skirt to where she so desperately needed to be touched, she'd found release as well.

Private and alone, it was her time not to be a princess, or part of a despicable murder game: just herself, her heart given to a boy she barely knew and yet felt she'd known for years. That had made sense, of course, once the Future Foundation had come to their rescue. But she didn't forgive Byakuya Togami for knowing exactly what had transpired within the walls of the Neo World Program's library.

Sonia downed the entirety of the glass and set it aside on the table. The water provided hydration but had done little to cool her down, not with the way her imagination wandered. She'd been lost to it until she heard him emerge from the kitchen, the dirty dishes and broken stemware having been taken away, washed, and disposed of.

"Yes, it is rather late, we should go," She agreed, taking his hand and getting up from her place at the table in order to reach the lights: despite the solar panels, wasting energy was in bad taste considering the limited resources they were already needing to live on. "And I appreciate your company, but let's not bother Tsumiki tonight." She gently played with the fraying edges of fabric that kept her finger bound and Gundham a bit disheveled. Another factor in the failed attempt to calm her nerves.

And other parts of her that she was far too anxious, or proud, to let him see.

"I'll be fine."

She had to be, she thought, as they took the winding path back from the main hotel building to where their cabins were in various states of repair. Hers was one of the ones in better shape, due to the time her friends had to work on it and the supplies the ships brought from her allies in Novoselic. The steps were intact, not crumbling, and she'd swept the porch of fallen leaves earlier leaving it tidy for her to ascend once they'd reached her temporary home.

"Thank you, for walking me back. And for dinner, and the bandage," Sonia faced him and found herself babbling on like a child. Hardly fitting for a woman due to return home as a disgraced queen, but a queen nevertheless. But his hand in her own and the way he looked at her, seemingly taking every bit of her in...she couldn't be a queen before him. She could only be Sonia, for better or for worse, looking up at him with a single word on the tip of her tongue but left unspoken. Her expression would have to say what she could not.

Stay.

Her head.

The thought made him sick, both from the brutality that her people may very well dish upon her, and with worry. She was all he had left in this world after the tragedy. His first, and only friend. Her people had every right to punish her, yet he couldn't allow it. If they took her from him, his grip on a normal life would be gone, and he would doubtlessly lose himself to despair once more. He would march his animal army on her country and utterly annihilate-

He took a deep breathe to temper his ugly rage: Fury he hadn't felt since before the simulation, when he'd truly lost himself. "I have no life." He started, then hesitated. "You do have a quest yet to complete, and a people to lead. I have... nothing left. Here or anywhere else. You needn't worry about my life if they take yours. I believe it would be in their best interests to take both of us or neither of us at all." The implication was soft, yet deadly, but she wasn't sure if she would garner the true meaning behind his words.

Gundham's anger dissipated the rest of the way when she cut herself on the glass. The urge to help her in anyway he could overtook him instead, as he knelt on the floor in front of her, and he took her finger into this mouth. His grip was warm on her wrist, and firm, as his tongue lapped gently along the cut. The taste of her blood was like a copper blossom, as he swallowed it down. He'd never had his lips on her for so long, he realized somewhere in the corner of his mind, yet he was so focused on the task at hand, that he managed to not get flustered.

He soon pulled away, his breathe coming heavy. He continued working on her finger, taking her hand back in his own, and slowly wrapping the fabric around the cut. Her breathy voice made him pause, and he finally looked up from his task. "Are you.. okay?" He didn't remember her ever replying with a simple "Kay," before. He quirked a brow, as he tied the makeshift bandage snug.

Sonia's face was flushed, her breathes coming through parted lips. The way she looked right now, was how he had imagined in that far corner of his mind: how she'd look underneath him, their naked bodies pressed against each other in the intimate way that lovers did.

Sevens hell.

Now he was surely just as red as she was. He let go of her digits, yet he couldn't look away, especially as her lips parted, and her tongue drifted across her bottom lip. How he yearned to feel her lips on his own. To feel how soft they were, and to learn what she tasted like.

The breeder wasn't sure if he would be able to contain himself for much longer, but luckily, she stood up and went over to a chair to sit down. "It is not a problem. I am not unskilled at this kind of thing." Maybe she was just really drunk, and that's why she'd reacted like that earlier. He was trying to get his mind off of it, and failing. He handed her a glass of water, and then got to work, rinsing off the dishes and loading the dishwasher. He threw their paper napkins and wrappers from dinner into the trash, and wiped the counter.

He was quiet for the most part, his mind continuing to drift to what he'd have done if she hadn't gotten up. Kissing her was at the forefront of his thoughts, as well as embracing her in his arms. He'd tasted her blood, and now he wished to taste all over her body...

He tried to hurry the cleaning along, and he managed to not drop anymore dishes. He had to get back to his cabin soon, before he ruined this night for them. Soon, everything was cleaned up. "It is quite late. Perhaps we should head back to our cabins. I shall escort you." He held out his hand in order to help her up, even though the brief contact only made his self control slip even further. "How does your wound fare? If it is too deep, we may need to visit the nurse tonight."

[rjhpandapaws]

How a Family is Built

Chapter 1: It Starts with a Couple of Good Friends

Connor took some time on his own after the revolution. It had seemed like the most fitting thing to do. Very few androids trusted him, though he couldn’t blame them, so he didn’t believe he would be that welcome at Jericho. The hug he and Hank had shared had been nice but there was a defined line between coworkers and housemates that Connor didn’t feel that he would be permitted to cross. Not to mention being temporarily unemployed meant that he wouldn’t be able to contribute to the household which would have been unfair to Hank. He was CyberLife’s crowing achievement, he could figure something out. As it turned out, there weren’t too many places that were willing to hire you when the only thing you had done was hunt your own kind, and failed at that too. Sure, he was one of the faces of the Revolution, but that seemed to hurt more than it helped him. Some places seemed to believe that he was applying for jobs to make a point instead of the fact that he actually needed one and turned him away. He considered a dog walking service but only briefly because as much as he liked dogs they didn’t always seem to like him. He assumed it was because he didn’t smell like anything organic and that meant danger in most cases.

So he wandered instead and picked up odd jobs when and wherever he could. He was intentionally vague about his whereabouts and what he was doing whenever Markus or Hank reached out to him. He was aware he was probably causing them more worry than relief, but he wasn’t ready to admit that his venture into the real world had been a failure. That despite all that he had been built to be he had failed. He wasn’t sure how much of that fear was his own and how much of it was from what failure had meant for him before the Revolution. He was still trying to parse Connor from RK800. He was aware that there was only so much separation that could be done, but he still wanted to know the difference between his deviancy and his base code. Hank and Markus would both say that it wasn’t important, but they also hadn’t had an angry AI rip everything out from under them. She had been quiet since CyberLife had been returned to Elijah, but he wanted to know what his natural state of being was just in case she ever returned. He wanted to know what normal was in the event he would have to fight his way back again. Hank would have called him paranoid, but he felt he had a right to be after everything that had happened to him. Reality was a luxury in his situation and he wanted to keep his grip on it as best he could. If that meant wandering aimlessly through Detroit then that was what he would do.

The thing about friends is that when they only hear from you on occasion and don’t see you for nearly a year apparently they get worried. Connor couldn’t explain what had happened to him between when he saw Markus at a cafe and when he woke up in Hank’s living room. Before this crash he hadn’t gone into proper stasis in months. He got a few minutes here or there, but never enough to sort out the ever growing pile of errors in his code. “He finally back with us?” Came Hank’s voice from somewhere in the house. “Yeah. He’s back online, he just needs a few moments to recalibrate.” That was Markus’s voice, and from far closer than Connor would have liked. He was only made aware of the interface that had kept Markus so close to him because of the notification he received when it was terminated. He let his systems finish calibrating before he opened his eyes. He felt notably less sluggish now and the dread of the feeling that he had been slipping away from himself was nearly gone. He sat up carefully and took in his surroundings. He was in Hank’s house and it was much more clean that it had been on his last visit. “Welcome back to the land of the living Kid.” Hank remarked as he walked into the living room with a bottle of thirium in one hand and a light beer in the other. Some habits refused to die he supposed.

“Thank you.” He said as he took the offered thirium bottle, “Sorry for taking up your couch.” Hank rolled his eyes as he sat in the open space on the couch, “You can make it up to me by being honest about where you’ve been the past few months and why you haven’t been sleeping.” “Androids don’t-” Connor started. “It’s a turn of phrase Connor.” Hank cut him off, “Now out with it.” “Take your time.” Markus said in a way that would have been reassuring if Connor hadn’t been so on edge, “I’m here if you would rather interface.” He watched Markus pack up the laptop and various tablets he had likely been using to monitor him while he had been in stasis. Did he dare tell them the truth and admit to being a failure? It didn’t come with the same consequences as before but something about it still didn’t feel right. He didn’t want to face their disappointment. He was pulled out of his thoughts by Hank putting a hand on his knee. “Nothing short of having gone back to tracking down Deviants is going to upset us Con, I promise.” Hank said and gave his leg a reassuring squeeze, “But you haven’t slept in close to six months and between that and never hearing from you, we’re worried. We just want to make sure you’re alright.”

“You’ve been checking for your Amanda program again.” Markus pressed, his tone was less frantic than Hank’s but the worry was still there, “We made sure that she was gone. Your Mind Palace is your own now.” “Is that what’s bothering you Connor?” Hank asked. “Part of it.” He admitted as he blinked away the stress warning that popped up on his HUD, “I want to be sure what I’m feeling is mine and not just my code. That it won’t be taken away again as soon as I make a mistake.” He hadn’t meant to let all of that out, but once he had started he couldn’t stop the words from spilling out short of shutting off his vocal processor. Hank looked surprised and Markus looked worried. “Connor, we wouldn’t let something like that happen to you.” Markus said as he reached out for Connor. His synthskin hadn’t fallen away but Connor knew he was offering to interface, to be a median if that would be easier. “You trust us don’t you?” “Of course I do.” He agreed, “Its myself and my systems that I don’t trust. How do I know that I’m actually Deviant? How can we be sure this isn’t just another last ditch effort by CyberLife to undo everything? How do I know that any of this is real?” “Alright, fuck this.” Hank sighed as he stood, “Time to get the dog. He’ll know if its you or not. You’re his goddamn favorite after all.”

Connor found himself looking around the room as he finally noticed the absence of a certain four legged beast. He set the empty thirium bottle on the coffee table and leaned back against the couch. That was all the time he had to brace himself. He heard an excited boof and the scramble of paws on the hardwood floor. “Go find him, go find Connor.” Hank encouraged. Connor found himself buried under an excited Saint Bernard only a few moments later. He felt himself smile genuinely for the first time in months. He buried his face and hands in the dog’s fur and felt a rush of relief. Sumo had recognized him, which meant at the very least that today was real. Had he been able to he would have cried. “The big lug missed you just like the rest of us.” Hank said from behind him, “I had to pull him away from the door the first couple of weeks you were gone. He thought that every little sound on the other side was you.” “I’m sorry.” He said from his place buried in Sumo’s side. “Just keep in touch this time Kid.” He said as he laid a hand on Connor’s shoulder, “Or tell us where you’ve been staying so we can come and visit you instead.” Connor hesitated for a long moment caught between lying; which would lower Hank’s concern; or telling the truth and making him upset. He settled for the truth, “I haven’t really been staying anywhere in particular.”

He was met with a long stretch of silence before Markus decided to speak up, “Do you mean that you have been homeless or something else?” The concern in his voice made Connor flinch. “I don’t have a place to stay.” He confessed, “If I was working I would stay there if I was able to.” He heard Hank sigh from behind him, “Connor you could have come back here if you needed to.” “I didn’t want to disappoint you because I couldn’t do this on my own.” Connor said. He sat up but continued to pet Sumo who had finally calmed down, “I’m designed to be able to adapt and I couldn’t even get a job.” “Stop that Connor.” Hank said firmly, “I wouldn’t have been disappointed. I know it seems like it, but I’m not mad, I’m just worried.” He walked around to the front of the couch so he could look Connor in the eye, “Finding a job is hard, it always has been, but the odds are stacked against you because of what you’re known for. I know its not what you want to do, but I can talk to Jeff about you coming back to the station.” “There is always a place for you at Jericho as well if you would rather that.” Markus took a moment when he noticed Connor’s hesitation, “You can stay with me if that works better. We could always use a liaison with the police, I know it isn’t ideal, but we can give you that much until you can find something else that interests you.”

“There aren’t many androids that are willing to trust me. Are you sure it would be okay?” Connor pressed, “Police work feels too close too what I used to be.” “You don’t have to decide today.” Markus replied, “You can stay wherever you are the most comfortable until you decide on something.” “I don’t want to be a burden.” Connor deflected. “Connor, we’re your friends. We wouldn’t be offering if we didn’t want you here.” Hank argued, “That aside, I really don’t think Sumo is going to be all that keen on letting you out of his sight now that you’re back.” Connor looked down at the content Saint Bernard that had made himself at home in Connor’s lap and the space that was left on the couch. He supposed it wouldn’t be fair to any of them if he vanished again so soon after coming back. “And if you wind up deciding you would rather go soul searching again we won’t stop you.” Hank continued, “All I ask is that you keep in touch this time around.” Markus nodded his agreement, “Take a few days to rest. Think about what you want, and when you’re ready you can tell us what you decided on. We’ll wait as long as it takes.” “We just want you to be happy Con.” Hank said, “That’s where it starts.” “I’ll think about it.” He said eventually, “I missed you too, I think. Being back is nice at the very least.”

Hank and Markus smiled. “That’s all we could ask.” Markus said, “I’ve got to get back, but I’m only a ping or a call away.” “Thank you.” Connor said as Markus grabbed his things and stood. Hank ordered Sumo off of the couch and sat down beside Connor. “He worried more than he let on, we both did. We’re glad you’re okay.” Hank let out a sigh, “And I know its beating a dead horse at this point, but we care about you. If you ever feel like that again, please reach out. We can’t help you if we don’t know.” Connor nodded, “I will try and be better.” Hank smiled, “Good. Now let’s watch some shitty tv until you feel better.”

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: Avengers #231: Up From the Depths!

May, 1983

So back to where we were before a detour in Annualsylvania.

Time for Roger Stern’s first issue where he can do his own thing and not have to tie up someone else’s story. Although he did a really good job tying up someone else’s story so I’m hype to see his other ideas.

And the cover is. Uh. Thor, She-Hulk, and Captain Marvel trying to beat up a tree? Yeah, take that, the Lorax.

More seriously, its just good that cover artists have gotten the note about her outfit.

We start this story when some uh swamp thing looking things march out of Chesapeake Bay just before dawn.

“They are not men... not yet.”

Huh.

The narration informs us that in addition to not being men... not yet, these figures don’t even have bones.

Then one of the things just squishes through a chain link fence.

Ah, the ol’ T2 maneuver. Good show.

The things sneak up on a hilariously yellow-suited SHIELD agent, hold him down and knock him out.

One of the things turns into the guy they just grabbed.

Whoever: “No help is needed, Agent Farber. Farber... yes, that’s your name... my name now. The master was right. Farber’s surface memories are mine.”

Then New Farber sets off on Farber’s patrol route.

What a perplexing happening.

Several hours later, now for something completely different.

The Avengers, plus former members Vision, Scarlet Witch, Wonder Man, and Beast have gathered together at Meadowglen Memorial Gardens to... well...

Vision: “We have gathered here this day to pay our final respects to a former ally... a friend who gave her life trying to end the threat of Ultron. The robot Jocasta was never officially an Avenger. In truth, we barely knew her. What joys she held, what pain she felt, we can but guess. That is our failure... that is our loss. Now, we can only remember her gallantry, and mourn.”

=(

She was too beautiful for this world.

Also, I know you already did the mea culpa on it, Vizh, but you personally barely knew her because you blew her off whenever she tried to socialize with you.

And the Avengers barely knew her because they constantly forgot that she was there.

Yeah, you admitted its your failure but I really want to make it clear what a big failure it was. You goons.

So what happened? Well, in Marvel Two-in-One #92-93... Jocasta pays a visit to the Fantastic Four and complains that the Avengers used and discarded her (which is half right but she actually ran away before they could reveal they wanted her to officially stay on as a substitute Avenger because they didn’t bother to mention it to her ahead of time).

She started living in alleys because society didn’t accept her. But she started having malfunctions that caused her a lot of pain so she came to seek Mr. Fantastic’s aid.

Overnight, Jocasta starts having nightmares about Ultron.

The following morning, Insurance Worker Aaron Stack meets with the Thing and decides to follow him around when Thing mentions he has to go deal with a lady robot. Because Aaron Stack.

Jocasta goes to the factory where Ultron was trapped in adamantium and frees him because Ultron hid a program in her brain to compel her to resurrect him. He tries to make her his bride again and she’s like ‘ew no’ again.

The Thing and Aaron Stack show up and Thing ends up mind controlled by Ultron who uses him to attack Aaron Stack.

Aaron Stack manages to get away with Jocasta. While repairing his Battle Damage, Aaron asks Jocasta why she doesn’t just call in the Avengers and she basically goes ‘i had a very dramatic exit and i’m not ruining it.’

The two robots go and confront Ultron again. Jocasta winds up wrestling with Ultron over a power cannon and it goes off blasting them both but specifically blasting Jocasta in half and not blasting Ultron in half.

Aaron Stack manages to defeat Ultron by reaching down his throat and ripping out his power supply.

... It feels like Aaron Stack does that kind of thing a lot.

Anyway, that’s how Jocasta died. And that’s why I’m sad.

The various Avengers and former Avengers all have their own thoughts during the heads bowed moment of silence.

Cap is just thinking about how many people he’s known have fallen in battle. Captain Marvel and She-Hulk feel the loss despite never meeting Jocasta. Thor wonders whether there might be room in Valhalla for her, despite being a robot. Hawkeye manages not to say anything disrespectful at all “for once.” Wasp is feeling like she lost a sister she’d never known. Really should have spent time with her. Granted, Jocasta felt weird about hanging out with you. Wonder Man thinks about the time that he died because everything reminds that guy of the fact that he died once. Beast feels like he’s been to too many funerals lately. Huh, did all the Defenders die already? And Vision is an inscrutable bastard even to the narration. Rude.

When the Avengers and co break up into smaller groups for chit chat, Beast asks Cap where the heck Iron Man is?

Cap(tain America, ‘natch) can only say that they left word for him about the service but that something must have come up.

Where the heck is Iron Man? His absence has been a plot point for several issues now.

LATER at 10 o’clock, Nick Fury, director of SHIELD, is in a helicopter with President Ronald Reagan on their way to inspect a SHIELD base where the agents are hilariously yellow-suited.

But when they get out of the helicopter, all the agents point their guns at the president.

Aw hey! And here I thought SHIELD sucked!

Okay, okay, okay. Its probably a gooey swamp plot, for some reason.

Also, Nick swears. I’m telling.

Five minutes later, at Avengers Mansion, the Avengers assemble for their regular meeting.

Except Iron Man hasn’t shown up.

As he hasn’t shown up for many meetings.

Cap wants to wait a couple more minutes because he’s just suuuuuure that he’ll be here any minute.

Poor, Cap.

Because right when Jan is going to start the meeting, they get a call on the priority phone.

Its Iron Man!

Wasp: “Iron Man! We’ve been trying to contact you for weeks! Where have you been?!? What happened? Are you all right?”

Iron Man: “Huh? Oh, yeah... I’m fine. But there’s been a lot of hassles here lately... at Stark International, I mean. The boss... Mr. Stark’s been going through a lot of changes, and he’ll be needing my help on more of a full-time basis for the time being. What I’m trying to say is... I have to quit the Avengers.”

This causes no small amount of consternation.

Cap even grabs the phone from Jan and tells Iron Man that they need him and that if there’s anything wrong, the Avengers can help.

Iron Man just says hey you guys are pros you can get along without me bye.

And then he hangs up as Thor is asking for his turn to talk.

Geez, what a weird call from Iron Man!

So whats the deal?

Here’s the deal.

Remember how Tony wasn’t looking so great last time he showed up in the book? Was kind of manic and unshaven?

Over in the Iron Man book, Obadiah Stane has been gaslighting Tony. Leaving bottles of whiskey out for him. Getting Indries Moomji to seduce Tony and then dump him. Hypnotizing a bunch of businessmen at a meeting to shout gibberish at Tony for some reason.

Presumably on top of all the nonsense going on in Avengers like the stress over what happened to Hank and with Jan, Tony falls off the wagon and starts drinking again.

He gets so drunk he starts flying around in the Iron Man armor, smashing every liquor billboard, which is funny if alarming. Deep in the bottle, Tony reveals to Rhodey that he’s Iron Man and then passes out.

Rhodey puts on the Iron Man armor and fights the villain de jour. Afterward, Tony refuses to take the armor back and leaves it in Rhodey’s care before going off to go be drunk some more.

So now Rhodey is Iron Man. Pretty exciting news for fans of Rhodey! It also means we’re getting closer to Secret Wars because Rhodey was the Iron Man in that story.

But, alas, for Tony Stark fans. Especially after having his identity revealed to Cap and Wasp, opening up a whole new dynamic among the Avengers.

Rhodey quits the Avengers because he doesn’t feel comfortable pretending to be the same Iron Man among them and doesn’t feel that he should reveal that the man inside the armor changed out of respect for Tony’s secrets.

Sooo. Yeah. Iron Man is off the team. Geez.

Stunned by this but doing her job as chairwoman, Wasp announces that the first order of business for their meeting is to fill the vacancy in the roster.

Who will it beeeeeeeeee?? -remembers the Starfox tease from last issue- Oh god no.

Meanwhile over at scene change, a scene changes.

10:15 AM, back to the SHIELD base.

Hilariously orange-suited Jasper Sitwell clasps his hands like a villain and announces that he’s holding the president ransom for...

ONE BILLION DOLLARS

President Reagan: “A billion dollars!! Good lord, man! Be reasonable! The federal budget can’t take that much added strain!”

They’ve already spent so much on the Iran-Contra affair.

Wait... -checks wikipedia- Oh okay, yeah it started in 1981 so this dig is historically justified.

Nick Fury, despite all the guns pointed at Reagan, decides to tackle Sitwell. All while thinking that base commandering this base was just too much pressure for poor Sitwell and clearly he snapped under the strain.

But then Sitwell grabs Fury mid-leap and slams him into the wall.

Nick Fury: “You... you’re not Sitwell!”

Not Sitwell: “No, but I’m a very good double, aren’t I? My men have replaced every single agent on this base! Now, are you ready to notify the proper authorities?”

So seconds later, Fury makes a broadcast to the White House situation room.

Nick Fury: “I... have some bad news, Pete. The boss an’ me are prisoners here.”

BUT! The person who got the message realizes that Bad News Pete is actually Agent Gyrich’s codename.

Which cracks me up.

And since Agent Gyrich is SOMEHOW still the Avengers liaison, despite the fact that they all hate him and refuse to deal with him in person, this is a code from Fury to call the Avengers.

So Henry Peter Gyrich calls the Avengers and tells them what’s going on and before you know it, the Quinjet is flying out of the mansion.

Apparently the launch bay is in the third floor now because the wall just swings open and the Quinjet flies out.

Neat.

On the flight over, Cap, She-Hulk, Thor, and Wasp try to strategize.

Try. Because they know where all the artillery emplacements are but without knowing where the President is being held, they don’t dare make a move.

Hey, Avengers, maybe you don’t have to be bad enough dudes to rescue the president from swamp monsters?

But since that’s not an option, the Avengers decide to wait until they hear from their advance scout.

Also, She-Hulk and Hawkeye are still bickering despite coming to a new understanding of each other recently. Peace was never an option?

So who is the advance scout? Captain Marvel, of course!

This is pretty rad, actually.

She can just turn to x-rays and invisibly zoom through the base going through all the walls she likes.

 Like, yeah, once its known that Captain Marvel is on the Avengers, I bet you can expect villain liars to suddenly start having radiation and energy detectors because of this precise sort of thing, but its neat that this is one of the things Captain Marvel brings to the table.

While zooming around, Captain Marvel also finds a sealed chamber full of gas where all the real SHIELD agents are conked out.

And the most heavily guarded room where she finds Nick Fury and a snoozing president.

Moments later, Captain Marvel nyooms back to the Quinjet as it passes Wilmington, Delaware to deliver her report.

Hawkeye: “Whew! She flew there, searched the place, and got back here before we’d flown much more’n a hundred miles! That’s some kinda fast!”

Drinking some respect Monica juice, Hawkeye?

Captain Marvel reports that Fury and the president are being held in the base commander’s quarters, behind a six inch steel door and four armed men and that the real SHIELD agents are all unconscious in a chamber on the other side of the complex.

This information is enough for Cap(tain America) to start formulating a strategy.

But meanwhile, in a submarine in the bottom of the bay. Its a mysterious figure in a silly outfit who is the one who is behind the doppleganging swamp men.

He receives a report from Simuloid-One aka Not Sitwell who reports that the ultimatum was delivered to the White House and that if they don’t receive a reply in an hour, the president will be killed.

Mysterious Mastermind: “Excellent! If the ransom is delivered, I will have riches enough to work miracles! And if not -- America will be placed in a state of chaos which I will easily turn to my advantage! Either way, I win!”

Simuloid-One agrees that things couldn’t look brighter.

-ominous thunder-

Hee.

Thor is great for irony.

Outside the SHIELD base, Thor stands atop the Quinjet, looking not at all to scale, and destroys radar towers and gun emplacements.

Good thing Tony is missing so he doesn’t have to pay for any of this later.

Actually, is this going to wind up being much cheaper than paying the one billion ransom?

Because when the Quinjet lands, She-Hulk just tears open the ground at Cap’s insistence to reveal the central underground corridor. That’s gonna cost a pretty penny.

Thor stays above ground to finish beating up people and also tanks (although he’s already knocked out half of the fake SHIELD agents on the surface) and the rest of the Avengers slip into the base.

The Avengers split up per Cap’s strategy. She-Hulk and Cap go one direction, Hawkeye and Wasp in the other.

No sooner than they split the party, Cap and She-Hulk are bogged down in a group of the fake SHIELD agents in hilarious yellow suits.

Cap: “Heads up, She-Hulk -- we have company!”

She-Hulk: “Like I said before, no problem! I just wish we weren’t in such a hurry -- so I could take the time to enjoy this more! This is the best workout I’ve had in weeks!”

She-Hulk is fun.

Over with Team Wasp and also Hawkeye, Hawkeye holds off a different gang of swampmenfakeagents as Wasp slips out through a vent to get reinforcements.

Meanwhile, on Team Monica, Monica shows up where Nick Fury is taking off his belt and Reagan is taking a nap. Her part in Cap’s plan is to help Fury guard the president.

Meanwhile but back in New York, a rocket lands at Avengers Mansion.

Since the Avengers have a security at least good enough to detect that, an alarm goes off and Jarvis runs outside with a frying pan to bludgeon whoever it is.

Good hustle, Jarvis.

But its Starfox.

Hit him anyway, Jarvis.

Starfox: “I beg your pardon. I suppose I should have radioed ahead, but I wanted to surprise my old comrades. You must be Jarvis... Thor spoke of you. I am Eros of Titan. Perhaps you’ve heard of me?”

Jarvis: “Eros? Why... yes. You were allied with the Avengers against Thanos!”

Starfox: “Ah, I thought my fame might have preceded me. Are the Avengers about?”

Jarvis: “I... I’m afraid not, sir. They’re engaged in a most important mission.”

Starfox: “Really? Where?”

Jarvis: “I’m not at liberty to discuss -- !”

Starfox: “Oh, come on! You can tell me!”

Jarvis: “W-well...”

Starfox! You’d better not be using your space charisma on Jarvis! He is an angel!

Back at the plot in Maryland, Thor, Cap(tain America), She-Hulk- and Hawkeye have somehow managed to end up broadly in the same place fighting the combined two groups of fake agents.

And considering its the Avengers hitting them, they’re not going down.

She-Hulk is hitting them and they keep getting up for more!

That’s alarming and impressive.

But... Hawkeye shoots a blast arrow too close to some of the fake agents and one of them loses an arm.

But this isn’t the modern age. That’d be too graphic.

Its only wood.

Its described as brittle wood but again: they were taking hits from She-Hulk.

And based on one of the wood agents getting stuck in a loop, Captain America decides that they’re not only not men, they’re also not even sentient.

I don’t know that matches with what we’ve seen from these simuloids in terms of holding conversation and apparently having personalities. But I guess its only virtual.

But now that the Avengers know their enemies aren’t human and aren’t people, they don’t have to hold back.

They just sort of. Start dismantling the wood men and breaking them to bits so they can’t get back up.

If it weren’t wood, it would be pretty brutal!

Back at the submarine and the secret mastermind, the secret mastermind isn’t pleased that the Avengers are overrunning the base when there’s only six of them and nearly a thousand wood men.

Not Sitwell: “The odds would seem to be in our favor by your calculations, master, but their power is such that -- !”

Secret Mastermind: “Silence! Do not speak to the Plant-Man of power! Mine was the genius that gave the semblance of life to unthinking plant tissue! There can be no greater power than that! Avengers or no Avengers, I will not be thwarted!”

He tells Not Sitwell to dispatch all other simuloids and for Not Sitwell to see to the president and Nick Fury himself.

And since Plant-Man is fairly fed up being made to look the fool by people like the Avengers, he’s not going to take the loss gracefully. And he has a special weapon to crush all opposition and he’s gonna use it!

So! Plantman!

A Mega Man robot master?

No, no. Its Samuel Smithers. Also that wood man we saw in jail last issue. But that was clearly a decoy. How sneaky.

Plantman was originally a Human Torch villain who was a botanist who invented a ray gun that controls and animates plant life.

Much like every other Human Torch Strange Tales villain, I can’t take this man too seriously. He was a grown man who devoted his life trying to bully a teenager.

Also, he joined Nebulon’s cult for a while. So. Even less respect.

His costume also doesn’t scream ‘i control plants.’ He just looks like a doofus.

Anyway, in section C, Hawkeye and Wasp have found the chamber where the real agents of SHIELD are being kept sedated. Wasp finds the air circulation controls and vents the gas.

She sends Hawkeye to go back up Cap and sees to the rousing agents herself.

First things first, she tells them to get undressed.

Dammit, Jan! Time and place!

Jokes aside, I feel like this is a shirts vs skins thing.

What with all the identical people in yellow suits and face obscuring helmets and goggles.

In section B, Not Sitwell is following Plantman’s orders. He takes the elevator from the base communications center to the CO’s office.

Which opens right in front of the CO’s office for some reason.

That just seems like its asking for trouble. Like the CO falling down an open elevator shaft because the elevator just opens right in the floor!

Who designed this base!

What happens if you take the elevator up right when someone is leaving the office and they trod on your head! This is why elevators aren’t located in the middle of the floor!

Anyway, Not Sitwell tells the door guards to cover him while he eliminates the prisoners.

Inside the CO office, Nick Fury has finished taking off his belt.

So much undressing in this issue!

Okay, but seriously. Apparently, just in case of a situation exactly like this where he’s disarmed, Nick wears a belt that he can convert into a slingshot. Including an explosive pellet that could blow down a steel door.

That’s thinking ahead!

To a weird degree. Hopefully its a stable explosive and won’t go off in case anyone ever kicks him in the dick.

Anyway, he never ever gets a chance to use it because Cap(tain America) and She-Hulk beat up the guards and Not Sitwell and came in to help rescue Fury and the president. And they give him Not Sitwell’s gun so there’s no reason for Nick to ever use his belt explosive.

It be like that sometimes.

Then there’s a K-BAM that shakes the base so Cap(tain America) sends Cap(tain Marvel) and She(-Hulk) to investigate while he stays with Fury to protect the president.

Meanwhile, the president the Reagan wakes up from his nap. This isn’t important but this is the characterization the comic is going with. Sleepy Reagan.

Captain Marvel zooms off at literal light speed with She-Hulk telling her not to hog all of the action.

But then She-Hulk finds Hawkeye who has been pinned under some collapsed ceiling after that K-BAM. She(-Hulk) helps him out but his leg has been broken.

Then a bunch of shirtless people run in to She-Hulk’s alarm.

But its okay! Its the people Jan had get shirtless! And it was, probably, for shirt vs skins reasons!

Wasp tells She-Hulk that they’ve cleared out most of the fake agents and that they’ll keep an eye on Hawkeye, so She-Hulk should find out whats going on topside.

She-Hulk: “Holee -- ! What the devil is that?!”

Turns out that whats going on topside iiiiiiiiis

A giant-sized man-thing?

No, no. But definitely some kind of large... swamp... thing.

It apparently stomped out of the bay, according to a bolt of electricity. Who is Captain Marvel. Who also reports that the giant-sized swamp thing is pretty resistant to electricity.

Which makes sense. Vegetation isn’t a great conductor, is it?

She-Hulk: “The only thing a monster that big understands is strength!”

Then she runs at it Leeroy Jenkins style and gets stomped.

So thaaaaaaaat explains that cover. Good to know, good to know.

She-Hulk is strong enough to start lifting the foot off of her and Thor makes it even easier by smashing the monster in the leg, making ti topple to the ground.

Then Captain Marvel basically turns into a laser and bounces all over the monster, carving bits off.

Problem: This thing works under Sorcerer’s Apprentice rules.

Every piece chopped off becomes an angry tree man.

Those are some angry Ents.

Which unfortunately puts the Avengers right back where they started vis having a small army of angry wood men they have to beat up.

... Son of a damn is the giant-sized swamp thing an asteroids monster? You beat him into smaller monsters and have to beat those into monsters too small to be a threat anymore?

Dammit, Plantman!

She-Hulk points out the obvious that Captain Marvel can just set all the wood men on fire.

Which she does. She just starts emitting infrared radiation until a miniature, ambulatory forest fire starts.

Plantman: “This can’t be! They’re destroying my mightiest creation! What next?”

What next is that a rocket hits the giant-sized swamp thing in the face, destroying it.

Annnnd out pops Starfox.

Trading one problem for another.

Ha ha.

Ok, maybe he’s not actually so bad. We’ll see.

With the giant-sized swamp thing destroyed, Plantman flees the scene in his submarine. Luckily smart enough to not have shown his face so the Avengers don’t know he was involved.

Order is restored to the base and all the agents put their shirts back on, presumably to Jan’s chagrin.

President Reagan is grandfatherly or whatever and instead of complaining about this laughably massive security breach, just raises SHIELD’s budget so they can plug this swamp slime hole in their security.

And I’m surrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre SHIELD will never have massive security breaches everrrrrrrrrrrrrr again.

Then again, he slept through most of the story so I’m sure he has no idea what happened.

And apparently Captain Marvel was moved from trainee to full, active Avenger at some point between issues.

Everyone pats her back and tells her that she did a good job, which she did do.

Starfox slides into the conversation and also adds his congratulations, slightly flirtily.

Captain Marvel is like holy shit an alien. What are you doing on Earth?

Starfox: “Why, I should think it’s obvious! I’ve come to join the Avengers!”

Everyone: “WHAT?!”

Hawkeye: -facepalm- Oh, no!

Womp, womp!

Heh. I’m amused that the Avengers have a similar reaction to me about this guy showing up to join the team.

So as Stern’s first issue not completing someone else’s story? Very good job, Stern. This was fun.

The characters were used effectively. The plot was fresh. Hawkeye’s leg got broken.

You’re doing a really good job!

Follow @essential-avengers​ because together we can make fun of Starfox much more effectively. Also like and reblog to let me do I’m doing a good job.

[master-sass-blast]

Out With the Old, In With the New, Part Two -Because Men are Often Worse Still.

IT’S ALMOST 1 AM THIS TOOK SO LONG TO FORMAT AND YEAH I COULD’VE STARTED EARLIER BUT S T I  L L-

Part Two of “Out With the Old, In With the New.” To recap, Piotr is kidnapped while on a mission, and you take things into your own hands when Nathan, Wade, and Neena turn up missing as well. In the process of tracking down Piotr, you run into and team up with Angel Dust -aka Christina--who’s looking for her missing daughter. You then ask Frank Castle for help in freeing your family, friends, and Christina’s daughter, then join him, Christina, Ellie, Yukio, and Russell on a mission to rescue everyone. Just when it seems like you’ve won, though, the mastermind behind the kidnappings --Nathaniel Essex--escapes with Christina’s daughter in tow, leaving you all with no other choice but to pursue him.

Yeah, it’s a lot. If you haven’t read part one, you definitely should otherwise this is going to be really confusing.

Rating: Tish for pyschological torture, injury, feelings of failure/probable rejection sensitivity dysphoria, and near death situations.

Pairings: Piotr Rasputin x Reader, Nathan Summers x Wade Wilson, Frank Castle x Karen Page, Ellie Phimister x Yukio, and Alexandra Rasputin x Nikolai Rasputin,

Taglist: @marvel-is-perfection, @chromecutie, @super-darkcloudstudent, @girl-obsessed-with-things, @nebulous-leo, @dandyqueen

Alright. Let’s start with the good news.

The good news is that Piotr is –mostly—okay. He’s a little dehydrated and a little roughed up from being knocked out and captured, but other than that he’s fine.

(According to him, Essex and his team of scientists seemed more interested in Neena, Wade, and Madeline; he and Nate were merely proxy captures.)

The bad news is that everything else is going to shit.

Scott basically hit the roof once he found out you left –with the teens, two known criminals, and a Hell’s Kitchen vigilante that is in the legal gray area in tow—without authorization, and is none too thrilled when you return with three more mutants that fall on the vigilante-assassin spectrum and a mutant super weapon with no tongue.

(Fortunately, Alex sends him packing with a none-too-welcoming glare before he can verbally rip you to shreds.)

Your home is a veritable madhouse, now. True to his word, your uncle flew in, and has since taken your dining room hostage with various laptops, weapons, and stacks of paper. Nate and Frank are shoulder to shoulder with him, going over various strategies and pieces of intel; Wade, Ellie, Piotr, and Christina are arguing about Francis and the Weapon-X program, while Mikhail, Yukio, Alex, and Russell are having their own other conversation about the lab and everything that happened there—

It all blends into a cacophony of noises, none of which is helping you think right now.

Shit.

You notice Neena sitting off to the side, staring out the darkened window that overlooks the back deck. You skirt the chaos that starts in your dining room, trails through the hall, and spills into the kitchen, and sit down next to her on the couch. “You okay?”

She sighs heavily, then gives you a weak, tired smile. “Not really. But I will be.”

You want to ask her what happened in the lab –what Essex was so interested in—but you know now’s not the time for that question. That there may never be a time for that question. “Why don’t you go lay down in the guest room upstairs?” You look over your shoulder at the multiple arguments and conversation, then back at her. “Not to say we don’t need you, but I think we’re covered as far as opinions go.”

“Thanks,” she says with a small smile, “but Wade actually called Dopinder for me. He’ll be taking me back to my place.”

“Are you sure that’s safe?” you ask with a frown.

“I’ve got a good feeling about it.”

You let out a little huff of laughter. “Well, if you want to go chill upstairs until Dopinder comes, feel free.”

“That actually sounds good. I think I’ll do—”

The sound of glass shattering cuts Neena off –along with every other person in your home, save for one.

“You have no fucking idea what you’re talking about!”

You whirl around and see Christina advancing on Wade, who quickly gets Russell out of her warpath before picking up the nearest, largest shard of glass from the broken mirror that he can find and angles it at her.

“I will fucking shank you,” Wade snaps, voice entirely lethal. “You –you, of all people—do not get to tell me what is and isn’t a job! Your fucking sugar daddy turned me into a moldy avocado that got facefucked by a naked mole rat! You two built an entire scam off torturing innocent, desperate people just so your psychopathic main squeeze could get his rocks off and feel like some sort of Zeus-wannabe—”

“You don’t understand shit!” Christina snarls, advancing on Wade. “You’ve never tried to take care of a kid—”

“—playing God and crushing people under his feet—”

“—with no way to get a decent job or pay child support—”

“—and then you helped kidnap my future baby momma—”

“—and no resources or avenues to help you out—”

“—and you think I’m just going to forgive that?”

“—so you take what you can get!”

“Alright, alright, easy,” Alex says with an air of unchallengeable authority. With a simple gesture of her hand, she uses her telekinesis to back Wade and Christina away from each other, before flicking her wrist again, sending every last splinter of glass off the floor and into the kitchen trash can. “There’s bad blood between you two, that much is obvious. None of that changes that we have child to rescue. You two can duke it out later; now, we focus. Ponimayu?”

“If you think,” Wade spits out, still glaring at Christina, “that I am working with some fucking Cara Dune knock off—”

“She will not be joining us,” Alex interjects. “So that takes care of that.”

“Since fucking when!” Christina growls, advancing on Alex with her fists balled up. “Maddie’s my daughter, I’m not—”

“Risking losing her permanently by possibly getting your ass caught in some less than legal actions, while associating with less than legal people,” Alex finishes, standing and crossing her arms over her chest. “Because you have criminal history, da? Which means you do not have full custody, da? And if you get caught in further such activity, you will lose custody to ex who decided to give your daughter to man we are tracking, da?”

Christina visibly seethes, but says nothing.

“Our goal is to protect your daughter, which also means protecting you,” Alex continues, voice gentler. “Otherwise, we end up right back here. So, you stay here, we bring Maddie back to you—”

“—and my ex still has custody rights,” Christina finishes, bitter and defeated.

Alex casts a glance at your uncle before shrugging. “Maybe not. We’ll work something out.”

Christina squints at her, expression perplexed. “Work ‘what’ out?”

“Also, sidebar,” Wade interjects. “Since when am I just getting looped in on this?”

“You want to leave young girl in hands of experimenting scientist?” Alex asks, raising an eyebrow in challenge.

“No.”

“Then you help. Anyone else want to say anything?”

“What about us?” Russell asks, gesturing between himself, Yukio, and Ellie.

“You three stay here as well –I will handcuff you all to chairs myself if it comes to that,” Alex adds before any of the teens can argue. “Anyone else?”

“How’re we gonna track this shitstain down?” Frank pipes up. “He could be anywhere.”

“We can go through the intel we already have,” your uncle says, jumping into the conversation. “Chances are he’s still local, since it’s not easy to keep multiple sites running across a widespread area. We sift through everything, we might find something—”

“I can do you one better.” Ellie rummages in the cargo pockets on her suit, then pulls out a miniature hard drive. “I downloaded the compound’s entire database while trying to open the last containment tube. If he’s got other contacts, other places he’s been setting up, it should be on here.”

Your uncle takes the hard drive from Ellie’s outstretched hand with an impressed nod. “Nice. I’ll get working on this, start doing some basic search eliminations so that we aren’t wading through so much information.”

“X-Men are still involved in this,” Piotr says, speaking up for the first time since Christina punched the mirror. “Things cannot go too far off rails.”

“I’ll go along,” you say quickly when you catch the expressions that flicker across Nate’s, Wade’s, Frank’s, Mikhail’s, and Alex’s faces. “To make sure things don’t get too crazy.”

Piotr frowns. “Myshka—”

“I’m already knee-deep in this shit when it comes to Scott,” you mutter, shrugging. “No need to yank anyone else in. And you need to rest. So there.”

Piotr purses his lips, then nods towards the stairs. “Can I talk to you for moment? Please?”

***

 By the time you step over the threshold to yours and your husband’s bedroom, your stomach is in your shoes. You don’t need to see Piotr’s face to feel the disappointment, disapproval, and dissatisfaction radiating off him.

You knew it’d be coming. You’d just hoped that it would wait a little longer than this.

Piotr sits on the bed, waiting until you close the door behind you. The door latches shut, and then he lets out a sigh twice the size he is.

This fucking sucks.

“I wish I knew where to start,” he says quietly, gazing across the room at you.

“You’re upset,” you manage, throat already tight with emotion.

“I am,” Piotr confesses, still quiet. “I know you knew better. Are better.”

And there it is. Less than ten words, and he’s already got you on the verge of tapping.

“I didn’t have any other options,” you say, voice shaking. You sniff, then swallow hard and tilt your chin up. Don’t break down. Not now. “I really didn’t.”

“You always have other options, myshka. Options better than involving children and likes of Frank Castle. You could have asked X-Men for help—”

“Scott was the one on patrol monitor duty. Do you really think he gave me the time of day?”

Piotr frowns deeply. “You are X-Men. If you request assistance—”

“I’ll never be an X-Men in Scott’s eyes,” you spit out, voice breaking embarrassingly. “Look –there’s a young child missing, and she’s in the hands of a fucking maniac. Right now, that takes priority. You’re already disappointed in me—” You choke back a sob, then spread your hands in a ‘what else can I do’ gesture. “We all knew that was coming. So, let’s just leave it there, and next time I’ll try ‘extra hard to be good,’ or whatever.”

“Y/N—”

Whatever he’s going to say next you can’t bear hearing it.

You turn on your heel and all but run out of your bedroom and back downstairs.

 ***

 You catch your uncle as he leaves the dining room.

“Woah, punk –you okay?”

“Yeah,” you lie, scrubbing your face dry. “You get through everything?”

He stares at you, hard, for a long time, but ultimately drops your evident falsehood. “Yeah. Team’s in there concocting a plan right now.” He nods towards the dining room. “Should probably hop in if you want to keep tabs on shit.”

“Yeah, yeah. Look, uh, could you do me a favor?

“Sure. Name it.”

“Can you get her—” you nod towards Christina, who’s sitting on your family room couch and staring off aimlessly into space “—on one of your teams?”

Your uncle raises an eyebrow. “I thought she and your brother had bad blood.”

“I’m more worried about her daughter. If we can give her something mostly legit to do, she’s more likely to be able to keep her, and then…” Images of your childhood flash through your mind, and you swallow hard. “And then another little kid doesn’t have to spend the rest of their life with someone who hates them.”

Your uncle’s expression softens. He nods. “Yeah, punk. I’ll get her set up.”

You nod in thanks –then hug tightly before heading into the dining room. Job’s not over yet. Not by a longshot.

***

 Ellie’s mass download turns out to be more fruitful than anticipated –namely in that Essex has a righthand man that never visited the compound –to avoid potential capture if the location was compromised. A string of email communications shows that the righthand man knew about all of Essex’s secondary locations and developed the teleporter for Nathaniel.

And, with a little bit of working and some mostly illegal hacking, Nathaniel’s righthand man can be traced back to an apartment in Northern Manhattan (thank you, Micro, aka “Lieberman”).

The plan is simple. Mikhail teleports the rest of you inside the building’s stairwell to avoid being caught on camera. From there, you follow Alex, Mikhail, Nate, Wade, and Frank up to the proper floor.

Simple. Now all you have to do is execute it.

Your heart starts pounding in your throat as you follow the gaggle of assassins into the hallway. You’d agreed to come along, and you’d known that things would get… less than kosher…

But for the first time, you really take in the various guns everyone else is packing, and the body armor that Frank, Mikhail, and Alex all wear, and your stomach churns.

Dammit, Y/N, what did you just get yourself into.

Both Frank and Wade make to kick the door in –and then get yanked to the opposite wall via telekinesis.

“What, you want to alert entire floor?” Alex hisses, pulling on a pair of black leather gloves. “And get your fucking gloves on, Castle. We are not leaving prints if this guy decides to squeal.” She puts a glove hand on the doorknob, then frowns in concentration—

The door unlocks with a quiet click and swings open with a barely audible squeak.

You trail after everyone else, careful to stay outside any lines of fire—

And then everything happens in the blink of an eye.

The righthand man –Jason Cross, according to the name on the WiFi bill that Frank’s tech spook had tracked down—gets up out of his chair and makes a dive for a cell phone, only to hit the floor empty handed.

Alex summons the phone to her hand with her telekinesis, then swiftly pockets it. “Quiet, or this gets worse for you.”

“Get him in a chair,” Nate growls.

Frank, Wade, and Mikhail all rush Jason, physically picking him up and manhandling him into a wooden chair.

Mikhail pulls out a roll of duct tape from the duffel bag slung over his shoulder, then restrains Jason’s legs and arms with several loops of the stuff –all while whistling what sounds suspiciously like Katy Perry’s “California Girls.”

Because this night can’t get any weirder.

Wade rubs his gloved hands together, and the eyes on his Deadpool mask widen as he stares down at Jason. “Ah, this is gonna be fun! Whatcha feeling, baby boy? Chinese hot sauce water torture? Car battery to the nips? Poptart up the ass?”

“Why overcomplicate things,” Frank growls, voice sounding less like a human’s and more like if a pile of gravel learned how to talk. He towers over Jason, glaring down at him like Death personified. “Talk.”

Jason, to his credit, doesn’t piss his pants –though it’s probably a near thing. “L-look, man, I –I don’t know what you want, or what you’re hear for—”

“Wrong answer,” Frank snarls, then rears back and balls his hand into a fist.

“What the fuck is wrong with you!” Alex snaps, voice hushed. She bats his hand away from Jason with her telekinesis, then glares Frank down. “Eat a damn Snickers and sit the fuck down! For fuck’s sake!”

“He knows were the girl is,” Frank argues.

“And we are not going to get information if you start messing with his head –or if neighbors overhear you beating his ass. Sit down! Just –give me a minute.”

Frank scowls, but sits down on the nearest chair.

Alex lets out a huff, then starts stalking around the apartment.

You visually follow her trail as she snoops around Jason’s apartment. She does a cursory search of the kitchen, eyeing the pristine white coffee mugs all arranged with the handles facing left. She glances over the meticulously maintained coffee pot, then goes about checking through the cabinets.

“Whoa. Looks like someone’s a caffeine fiend,” Wade jokes when she opens one cabinet door to reveal several unopened bags of the same type of coffee.

Alex ignores Wade as she continues her circuit around Jason’s apartment. She eyes the immaculately white area rug and furniture, the precisely spaced pictures, and the flawlessly dusted coffee table before moving into his bedroom.

“Is there something specific we’re looking for?” Frank grumbles.

“Patience,” is Alex’s only reply. She opens the nightstand drawer, then pulls out a black leather-bound journal.

You get that sinking feeling in your stomach as you watch her flip through the journal’s pages, but stay quiet.

At this point, there’s really not much you can do to stop this ride.

Alex strides back out of the bedroom and tosses the journal onto the coffee table next to Jason, letting it land with a resounding thwap. She stares him down for a moment, then heads back to the kitchen.

“We’re looking for a missing kid,” Frank points out irritably.

“I am well aware,” Alex fires back, tone dry. She casts one more glance at Jason, then starts to shuffle through the rows of coffee cups –messing up their arrangement, touching them all over, sending the handles askew. She eyes one, coughs on it, then sets it back in the group before picking one from the back.

Jason stares after Alex, jaw clenching and unclenching feverishly. “Look, whatever it is you want—”

Alex ignores him as she withdraws the coffee pot from the machine. She turns towards the sink, then freezes halfway and sneezes into the pot.

Jason goes whiter than a sheet. “Just –look, I can’t tell you anything—”

She fills the pot with water, then sticks it in the machine. Alex tosses the already opened bag of coffee around for a moment –spilling a sprinkling of grounds on the counter and floor—before yanking one of the cabinet doors open and pulling out an unopened bag.

“Look, I –just stop!”

Alex pauses in her actions, glancing over her shoulder. “You know where the girl is.”

“I already said, I don’t know any—”

She turns away from him and rips the bag in half, sending coffee flying all over the kitchen.

Jason lets out a noise close to a sob.

Mikhail tosses a knife up and down as his mother portions out coffee grounds into a filter. “Is going long? Because, if is, I order pizza.”

Wade perks up. “Ooh, yeah! Burnt crusts and pineapple with olives!”

“No fucking pizza,” Frank growls, grimacing at Wade’s topping choices. “‘Specially not like that.”

“Terpeniye, ognennyy shar. We are just waiting for coffee to brew.”

“Betcha there’s a Postmates option that gets the pizza here faster than that.”

“Later, gorgeous,” Nate murmurs, gently squeezing his boyfriend’s hand.

Alex sets the coffee to brew, then strides into the main living area of the apartment, trailing coffee grounds with her. “Alright, we have few minutes. Let’s talk.” She fixes Jason with a stern glare when he all but lets out a shriek of agony. “You stay quiet, or I make this worse for you. Ponyal?” When his mouth screws shut, she nods and leans against a marble topped end table. “You know where the girl is. Where Essex took her.”

“Look, I don’t know—”

“Your email is listed in compound records,” Alex lists, starting tick off items on her fingers. “You own the blueprints for teleporter –which you also designed. Your journal mentions Essex by name and working with him. You have record of unethical scientific practices and aligning with agencies that promote or practice testing on mutant individuals. You know exactly why we are here and what we want, you are able to give it to us, and there is no ending in this that you do not come out fucked.” She stares him down for a minute, then shrugs. “You only control just how much it hurts.”

Jason gulps, then looks away. “Okay, look, I admit I know the guy –but if Nathaniel finds out I told you anything, he’s gonna kill me!”

“Should’ve thought about that before you sided with the guy that experiments on kids,” Frank growls.

“He’s going to kill you either way, considering we’ve been here,” Nate adds, leaning against the nearest wall. “You want to save a little girl’s life, or not?”

“You guys don’t understand,” Jason says, voice and expression suddenly earnest in a way that makes your skin crawl. “The gift this child possesses is too extraordinary to simply pass up on. The advancements that could be made for mankind are innumerable.”

“She’s a kid,” Frank snarls, finger tapping against his thigh. “Not a resource for you shitbags to exploit.”

“What even do you want her for?” Wade pipes up. “Aside from whatever sick torture porno collection the two of you are creating.”

“Subject Fifty-Eight has the ability to mimic other mutation sets and already displays remarkable ability to control and use said mutation. On her own, she could be an amazing asset in law enforcement and conflict de-escalation—”

“Which means you want to use her as a gun,” Wade surmises. “You sick cumsock.”

“It’s more than that!” Jason insists, leaning towards Wade as much as he can until the duct tape restraints stop him. “Nathaniel was making good headway on isolating the chromosome that carried the mimicry ability. If he’s able to separate it out, stabilize it, there’s not limits to what it could be used for. Soldiers and policemen with the ability to mimic fighting styles or power sets of alien opponents. Weapons with artificial intelligence interfaces that can adapt their ammunition to whatever they’re up against. Technology with programming that lets them adapt and overcome any type of malware. Vaccinations that could adapt to viruses—”

“We aren’t your ‘Godsend!’” you interrupt, crossing your arms over your chest. “Mutants aren’t a resource that you can just exploit for some type of breakthrough!”

“Not to mention, you held us against our will and put us in giant test tubes,” Wade adds furiously. “And we’re talking about a kid!”

“Sounds like dystopic book,” Mikhail interjects. “Like Hunger Games.”

“I think it’s more of a Divergent, technically—”

“I can’t let you stop the pursuit of science,” Jason says, so sincere and earnest that it’s disgusting.

You stare at him, shocked to your core. “You really don’t get it, do you?”

Mikhail turns to face his mother. “Mozhem li my prosto udarit' yego uzhe?”

“Almost.” The coffee maker beeps, and Alex strides back into the kitchen. She pours herself a cup, then walks back into the living area and sits on the couch, directly across from Jason. “Alright. Let’s try this one last time.”

Jason watches her, shifting in his seat (as much as the duct tape lets him). “Look, I already told you—”

“All you told me was a bunch of self-congratulating bullshit that, frankly, made me want to put your face through that end table,” she cuts him off, nodding at the marble end table to her right. “I’m giving you one last chance to do something other than waste my time, and then I’m personally shipping you out to a Siberian gulag, where you can spend the rest of your pathetic, disgusting days sniveling in a cold, dark cell and getting pissed on by gangsters who think you’re a fun bitch to bend over.”

As a credit to his tenacity, if not his common sense, Jason holds strong.

He gulps, and lets out a shaky breath, but shakes his head. “I can’t. I won’t.”

“For fuck’s sake, why aren’t we just breaking this shitbag?” Frank snaps, lurching up off the couch.

“Oh, we are,” Alex says, voice eerily soft and a calm, as she slowly raises the coffee cup to her lips. She maintains full eye contact with Jason as she takes a small sip—

Then she lifts the cup over the immaculate, pure white carpet, and tips it over.

Jason panics, lurching and struggling against his restraints. “No! No, no, no, no—”

The coffee stops, hovering in the air in a massive, rippling, dark brown blob.

Jason pants and gasps, eyes darting between Alex and the coffee.

Alex gently sets the empty mug down on the end table, expression completely inscrutable. She keeps her eyes locked on Jason, practically staring down into his soul.

If he has one left, you think bitterly.

Jason’s chest heaves, breaths slowly relaxing as the coffee continues to float in the air—

And then the blob begins to slowly –inexorably—pour towards the carpet.

Jason’s expression contorts into one of grief. His brow furrows. His eyes widen. His mouth strains into a grimace. His hands grip the armrests of the chair, knuckles going stark white. “Look –I can’t –I’m not—”

Alex merely raises an eyebrow –looking like the pinnacle of unimpressed—and continues to let the coffee flow sluggishly towards the ground.

Jason’s face goes deathly pale, then flushes as he starts to cry. Tears form in his eyes as he yanks at the restraints on his wrists. “Stop it… just –stop it!”

“Careful,” Alex says, voice perfectly smooth and neutral. “Struggle too hard, and you’ll knock over your chair. Might break something.”

His shoulders shake as he watches on, as he stares at a small drip of coffee that rolls down the outer edge of the blob and drops off, falling away from the liquid mass and towards the flawless white carpet—

And he breaks.

“Okay! Okay, okay, okay.”

The drop halts mere inches away from the floor.

Alex raises an eyebrow expectantly.

Jason sniffs and shudders, then hangs his head and starts talking. “The teleporter’s a prototype. It works, but it has a limited range and limited coordinate functions.”

“Useful stuff,” Alex says, voice going gravelly for the first time. “Or I’m dropping this whole cup and going back for the damn pot.”

“It’s in New Jersey. Near Cape May. There’s a second lab there that Nathaniel planned on retreating to if shit hit the fan.”

“And he’ll be there? With the girl?”

“Unless he’s decided to take her somewhere else, yeah.” Jason sniffs. “It’s the only other place he has that has the equipment he needs.”

Alex narrows her eyes. “Coordinates.”

“There’s a flash drive in my safe, underneath my bed. It has a backup of all the information and programming for the teleporter, in case the thing wiped itself clean.”

“Encryption?”

“Yeah; Nathaniel was paranoid about opposition from other companies and scientists. I can—”

“We’ll manage,” Alex interrupts him briskly. “Security measures on the safe?”

“There’s an alarm wired to the door that texts Nathaniel’s phone when it’s opened without the proper code.”

Alex nods at Mikhail. “Cut the back open.” She goes back to staring at Jason, bracing her elbows on her knees. “Security measures at the compound in Cape May.”

Jason squirms. “Look, I’ve already told you—” He lets out a pained whine when the coffee mass drops two inches, then starts talking once more. “It’s pretty spare. We couldn’t afford to have it equipped like the New York one. There’s some cameras, maybe three or four moderately armed guards, and some lockdown functions on the lab doors and windows, but that’s it.”

Alex watches him for a few moments longer, then turns her attention to everyone else. “Anyone else have questions?”

Frank scowls and shakes his head. He lurches off the couch, stalking towards the bedroom where the sounds of Mikhail cutting through the safe drone on. “Broke for a fucking carpet. Disgusting son of a bitch.”

Nathan shakes his head when Alex looks at him. “I’ve heard everything I need to hear.”

You pass on asking any questions, which only leaves Wade—

Who is staring off into space, fists clenched at his side.

You look at Nathan –who shakes his head—then back to Alex. “I… think we’re all set?”

Jason lets out a whimper when Alex collects the coffee back into the cup –mass, single drop, and all—then crumples as much as his restraints let him. “So, what are you going to do with me now?”

Alex shrugs. “Nothing.”

He frowns. “What?”

“Well, you said it yourself,” Alex says. “Essex will kill you just for ratting him out. We don’t have to do anything.”

Jason sputters, mouth opening and closing as he stares at Alex. “I—”

“I mean, look at you,” she continues, smiling enough to show a hint of teeth. “There’s not even a mark on you. Your apartment’s in one piece. All we really did was tape you to a chair and just… talk to you.” Her smile grows as Jason’s expression morphs to one of horror. “You broke for a carpet. If he doesn’t kill you for that, I’d be amazed.”

Jason’s chin trembles as tears roll down his cheeks.

Alex smirks, stands, takes a sip coffee, then grimaces. “You have shit taste in coffee.” She chucks the cup against the nearest wall –which elicits another groan from Jason—then peers into the bedroom. “Ognennyy shar! Skol'ko dol'she?”

“Uzhe sdelano!” The sound of the safe-cutting stops, followed by some rustling noises, and then Mikhail appears in the living room. He tosses the flash drive to Nathan. “Here goes.”

Nate catches it, then raises an eyebrow at the manila folder and envelopes in Mikhail’s other hand. “What are those?”

“Identity thieving.” He crams them in his duffel bag, then nods at Jason. “What do with him?”

Alex makes a ‘hmm-ing’ noise, then glances over at Jason—

Who promptly passes out.

“What did you do to him?” you ask.

“Pressure point and telekinesis.”

“And we’re just leaving him here?” Frank growls, emerging from the bedroom. “Letting him walk away?”

“With any luck, Essex will handle him for us,” Alex says, dropping the empty coffee mug in the kitchen sink. “If he doesn’t, we take things from there.”

You gulp. You know you should protest the idea of executing another human being –on some level, you want to, the justice system exists for a reason—

But you also know there won’t be any swaying any of the people around you. And… you doubt the world would mourn the loss of someone that broke for a damn carpet.

“Alright, we’re done here,” Alex declares as she strides towards the front door. “Let’s go.”

***

 “What the fuck was that?”

You’re all back at the van –which was parked a few miles away from Jason’s apartment—stationed around it while you all wait for Frank to finish his argument with his “tech spook” and for the flash drive to be unencrypted. Frank’s at the open tailgate, doubled over a laptop while grumbling into a shitty flip-phone. Mikhail and Nate are going what the former lifted from Jason’s safe, and Alex—

Is currently being glared down by one very, very irate Wade Wilson.

He has his mask off, which is the biggest tip off that he’s genuinely furious and not just making an argument for the sake of making an argument. The dim lighting and the scars covering his skin cast his face in shadows, but it isn’t hard to miss the sound of his ragged breathing, the way he keeps clenching and unclenching his fists, or how his body is so tensely coiled that it seems like he’s only three seconds away from physically lashing out at Alexandra.

Everything goes silent –save for Frank’s frustrated muttering—as you all glance between the two assassins.

Alex, to her credit, seems none too ruffled. She blinks slowly, raises an eyebrow, and calmly crosses her arms over her chest. “In regards to what?”

“That fucking interrogation!” Wade snaps, sounding almost like a feral dog. “You said we were going in there to squeeze this guy until he coughed up his juices, and then you just –you just—”

“Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.” She shrugs. “Evident from the state of his apartment, his reactions to his order and cleanliness being disrupted, and the journal entries talking about his therapy sessions for the condition.”

“You fucking—”

“I got results,” Alex states. “Without alerting neighbors, authorities, or leaving a trail of evidence that would lead back to us or X-Men.” She raises an eyebrow. “You have problems with that?”

“Oh, I have fucking problems,” Wade seethes. “You don’t just… you don’t just force your way into someone’s brain and turn it fucking inside out! You don’t use something against them that they can’t help or control!”

Even Frank’s staring now, having stopped his quiet swearing and arguing.

“How many therapy sessions do you think this guy is gonna have to go through, now, just undo everything you did to him? You don’t –you don’t just—”

“Presuming he lives that long,” Alex interjects, leaning against the side of the van, “that is not my problem.”

Wade shakes his head vehemently, mouth twisting into a scowl. “We’re not supposed to be that. We bend the rules, we’re morally gray, but we do not sink to the bad guy’s level.”

Alex stares at Wade for a long time before finally speaking. “If you think you’re the first man who has problems with how I operate—”

“It has nothing to do with me being a man!” Wade shouts. “It has everything to do with you emotionally manipulating that shitbag on stuff that he can’t help and can systemically destroy his mental well-being! You beat the shit out of them, you make them piss their pants in fear, but you don’t purposefully look for their weakest spot and keep beating on it until they have nothing left to give you!”

Silence falls, save for the sound of taxis honking and various sirens in the distance.

Nathan steps towards Wade, gently putting his arms around him while Wade gasps and shakes. “Easy, sweetheart. Deep breaths.”

“Semantics of the ‘ethics of interrogation’ aside,” Alex continues once Wade catches his breath, “you are not the first person who takes issue with how I operate. Our goal tonight was covert operation and quick answers. I did both. That nets a win.”

Wade shakes his head against Nate’s shoulder. “You can’t.”

“You don’t want to. I don’t take issue with it.” She shrugs. “Next time we have to do something similar, we stick you on lookout duty instead. Simple.”

You swallow hard as silence stretches on once more, gaze darting between Wade and Alex as the two stare each other down—

And then Frank’s phone starts yelling.

Frank blinks, then lifts his phone’s speaker to his ear. “Yeah, I’m here… dammit, Lieberman, why didn’t you say you were fucking done? …yeah, yeah…” He crouches and peers at the laptop screen, where there’s a few different folders open. “Alright, what are we looking at?”

***

 The secondary compound is markedly smaller than the first. It’s fairly non-descript, planted in the center of a vast, weed-choked, otherwise abandoned parking lot.

“Used to be a pharmaceutical processing center,” Nate says as scans the warehouse through a pair of night vision binoculars. “Records say that Essex bought it through a third-party once they shut down due to budget cuts.”

“Good for him,” Frank grumbles as he sips down a cup of coffee. “How do we crack this place open?”

“Should be able to break in through the South entrance,” Nate reasons. “It’s the least defensible from the inside. Get in, gun our way to the lab.”

You drink from your own cup of coffee as you mull your dad’s suggestion over –it’s three in the morning, and it’s only going to get rougher from here on out—then shake your head. “No. We can’t risk losing Madeline.”

“She’s right,” Alex chimes in. “Going in ‘guns blazing’ will alert everyone and give Essex time to escape.”

“Anything we do is going to alert him,” Nate huffs. “The lab has security camera feeds that let him see the whole base. At this point, it’s about speed.”

“Unless we draw him out,” Wade suggests.

Silence falls over the group as you all consider the idea.

“How would we do that?” Nathan asks.

“Like you said, he has the camera feeds,” Wade explains. “So, figure out where the cameras are, and send out a ‘bait team’ to trigger them and bring him out. Then, while they have Essex distracted, the rest of us go in and save Madeline.”

“Is good idea,” Mikhail agrees after a moment of thought.

Nathan considers, then nods. “Alright. Let’s do this.”

***

 “Do you really think he’s gonna come out here to fight us?”

You’d teamed up with Alex and Nate to distract Essex, leaving Frank, Wade, and Mikhail to extract Madeline from the compound.

At the time, it’d seemed like a good idea.

But now, as you’re strolling up to the warehouse-style building, in full view of any cameras and with no other cover, you’re starting to have second thoughts.

“He’ll come,” Nate says, charging up his gun.

There’s an undercurrent to his voice –tension, anger, you’re not sure what—that makes you think he knows more about this situation than he’s letting on—

But then there’s a flash of light, and Nathaniel’s standing less than twenty feet away from you, and you don’t have time to second guess anything else.

“You really thought that splitting up would work?” He smirks, self-assured. “Like I don’t already have your whole plan figured out.”

“Working so far,” Nathan grits out, setting his sights on Essex. “You’re out here.”

Nathaniel’s smirk broadens into an arrogant, borderline crazed grin –and then whips his hand to his left.

A rusted metal shipping container, long since left discarded by the previous owners, scrapes across the pavement as it moves towards you three. It picks up speed, moving faster and faster, until it’s practically hurtling towards you.

You gasp and crouch, split seconds away from grabbing your dad and Alex and flying for it—

And then Alex flicks her hand –deftly, casually—at the container.

It stops in its tracks, crumpling in on itself like an empty Pepsi can.

Nathaniel stares at her, mouth gaping in awe and horror.

Alex glares mutely at him, stalking across the parking lot towards him before pulling out her own gun and opening fire.

Nathaniel erects a telekinetic shield to deflect the bullets, then reaches for the teleporter mounted on his wrist.

Before he can touch it, though, Alex flicks out a thin cord of energy from her hand, wraps it around his upper body, then flings him across the parking lot.

Nathaniel grunts as he tumbles along the ground, teleporter sparking when it smacks into the hard pavement. He rolls to his feet, tapping at the device’s display screen, then curses when it doesn’t work before launching more scattered debris at Alexandra.

You watch, somewhat awestruck, as Alex deftly dodges the various projectiles as she charges Essex once more. “You think she’s got that covered?”

“Here’s fucking hoping,” Nate grunts as several black-clad, well-armed men sprint out of the nearest entrance to the warehouse.

The fight becomes less of a ‘fight’ and more of a ‘dodge the multiple flying chunks of metal’ challenge as you and Nathan try to take down Essex’s hired muscle and Alex deals with Nathaniel himself.

You yelp as you duck a straight blast of energy from Alex, which goes on to score out a chunk of the asphalt behind you. You try to fly into the air to avoid getting hit by anything else –then nearly get taken out by a spray of gunfire from one of the guys Nathan’s chasing down.

You’re in over your head. You’re in way over your head. This is so far above your pay grade it’s not even funny anymore. You can handle the various scrapes the X-Men get into, and you’ve managed to come out on top in a few rougher fights than that, but trying to keep pace with literal professional soldiers and assassins is a step too far for you. Several steps too far.

Get home to Piotr, you chant in your head, like a mantra. Get home to Piotr, get home to Piotr, get home to Piotr.

You unleash a whirlwind of air, knocking several gun-bearing men away from you.

Get home to Piotr.

You bounce away from what sounds like a grenade going off, sailing through the air and dodging pieces of shrapnel as best you can as you go.

Get home to Piotr.

Something hits you hard in the back, and you plummet to the ground with a choked grunt. The pavement is none too forgiving to your comparatively fragile, fleshy body; pain sparks in your head and your right knee, alerting you to their discontent with being abused like this.

Your vision goes blurry, and the world slows for a minute as you try to get your bearings back about you.

Get… home…

“…hardly even a challenge.”

You look up, and see Nathaniel Essex standing over you.

He’s grinning nastily, which only further offset by the blood caked to the side of his face. He flicks his hand, and sends you tumbling across the ground once more. “I know the X-men have low standards for fighting capabilities, but this is depressing, even for them.”

Get home… to…

You stagger to your feet, gritting your teeth together as your head and knee throb in vengeful unison. Your stomach drops when you think of Alexandra –granted, your vision’s blurred, but you can’t see her anywhere—but you quickly push it aside when Nathaniel launches a steel beam at you.

He has the decency to look somewhat impressed when you bat it away with an air shield. “Not bad.”

Before you can think, you feel an invisible hand close around your neck, shutting your airflow off as it lifts you off the ground.

“But not good enough.”

You claw at the invisible force –not that it does any good. Your feet kick and thrash as you cough and sputter—

And slowly, the world goes dim.

Piotr.

I’m sorry.

Your face throbs, pulse slowing as you begin to pass out—

No.

Absolutely. Not.

I refuse to go out to this jackass.

With your last bit of consciousness, you force yourself to stop struggling against the pressure around your neck and focus instead on the air around you –to do something with it, anything.

You manage to create a shockwave, sending it out in all directions around you—

It’s enough.

You drop to the ground as Nathaniel goes flying –hitting your other knee in the process, because that would be just your luck—gasping and sobbing as oxygen flows back into your lungs and body. Your ears are ringing slightly, and you throat feels like you’ve been drinking sandpaper—

Get home to Piotr.

You’re alive. Now you just need to do something with it.

You get to your feet, vision swimming as your eyes adjust from having hit your head and then nearly been strangled, but you manage to make out Nathaniel, groaning and laying a few yards away from you.

Get home to Piotr.

You clumsily unleash another blast of air at him, shoving him further away from you and getting a few good, pained swear words out of him for your efforts. You stumble to the side, then gear up to hit him again—

A flash of brilliant, golden energy slams into Nathaniel, rocketing him across the lot and into one of the warehouse walls. A few seconds later, it’s followed by a none too happy Alexandra, who storms after Nathaniel like the human equivalent of a particularly angry swan with a gun.

Seeing that Alex has Nathaniel well handled, you opt to drop down to your knees –hurting both of them this time, fan-fucking-tastic—then crumple against the asphalt on your side and curl into a ball.

Get home to Piotr. Get home to Piotr. Get home to—

A pair of hands grip underneath your armpits, and then someone hauls you to your feet.

“Come on, Rasputin,” Frank grunts, steadying you as you whine and curse. “We’re not done yet.”

“I am,” you mutter. “Hit my head.”

“Yeah, that’s probably why you’re bleeding.”

“Shit.”

A few feet away, you can see Mikhail handling the last of the gunmen, while Wade sprints clear of the fracas, holding a crying little girl in his arms.

Further away, you can make out Nathan and Alex, who’re working on taking down Essex.

You squint, then let out a frustrated sigh when that does nothing to clear your vision. “Who’s winning?”

“Your guy’s mom,” Frank says, sounding somewhat… amused? Impressed? It’s impossible to tell, with him. “She’s uh… she’s pretty much stomping him.”

There’s a few more flashes of Alex’s energy powers, accompanied by the tell-tale sound of your dad’s “future gun”—

And then there’s a flash of white light, and everything goes silent.

Dread sinks in your stomach. “He’s gone, isn’t he?”

Frank lets out an irritated grunt that confirms your fears.

“Okay,” Wade says as he gently rocks Madeline back and forth. “Who pressed the Staples’ button?”

Mikhail looks around for any sign of Essex, then looks to his mother. “Chto teper'?”

“Now, Alexandra sighs as she flicks the safety for her rifle on, “we go home.”

“What about Essex?” Mikhail asks.

“He will surface again, eventually. For now—” she nods at Madeline “—we get her back to mother.”

You raise your hand. “Question: does this mean I can pass out now?”

 ***

 The ride home –since Mikhail’s too tired to teleport everyone and the van you’ve been using back to Xavier’s—is exhausting. By the time you reach the school, the sun’s already rising into the sky.

The process of going through the medical checks –which takes even longer for you, since you have a definite concussion—is excruciating. You’re past running on fumes; all you want is a hot shower, a warm bed, and to not be interrupted for about seven to twelve hours.

It’s all worth it when you see Madeline dash into her mother’s arms. For all your misgivings against Christina –and, considering what she did to Wade, there’s plenty—there’s no denying that she and her daughter have a good bond.

Your uncle intercepts you as you trudge up the porch steps, steadying you as he guides you towards the door. “We’ve got her—” he points discreetly at Christina, who’s still hugging Madeline “—step up. She and her kid should be safe.”

You nod, too weary for words, then make to enter your home—

Except Christina stops you, quickly ushering Maddie inside while your uncle leaves to talk to Nathan and Frank. She steps between you and the door, gaze darting between your uncle and you. “Who the hell is he?” he hisses, jerking her chin towards your uncle. “And why did you even help me? He told me you asked him to set me up with… basically everything?” She narrows her eyes at you, regarding you with hostile suspicion. “The fuck are you trying to pull?”

You want to say something about morals and doing the right thing, about taking the high road, about mutants needing to stand together regardless of their respective pasts…

What comes out, though, is, “My parents paid a telepath to remove my mutant abilities, and all it wound up doing me was nearly killing me and left permanent psychic scarring on my brain.”

Christina blanches, blinking repeatedly. “…Shit.”

You shrug. “Pretty much. Look, your daughter needs a safe space to grow up in, and despite my vast misgivings against you… it’s clear that the two of you love and trust each other. As far as I’m concerned, I did all this for your daughter, so that…” You throat constricts with emotion, and you swallow hard before pressing on. “So that she wouldn’t have to endure the kind of childhood I had.” You sigh, wipe away a few stray tears, then level Christina with an exhausted glare. “Let’s be clear, though –you hurt Wade again, and I’ll fly you out to the middle of the fucking ocean and drop you there.”

Christina rolls her eyes. “Ooh, I’m so scared.”

“Whatever. Please get out of my way so I can go take a fucking shower.”

She smirks, but steps aside nonetheless.

You sigh heavily, then finally step into your home.

Somewhere during the period when you were gone, Illyana and Nikolai showed up –and brought Karen Page with them, too. They, in tandem with Piotr, are monopolizing your kitchen, making breakfast for everyone.

You wait until everyone else from the “rescue group” files into your house, then use the distraction of everyone being reunited to slip upstairs unnoticed. You beeline straight for the bathroom in yours and Piotr’s bedroom, shucking your clothes as you go, then step into the shower and turn the water on full blast.

You can barely keep your eyes open. The only thing that’s keeping you from curling up and going to sleep in this shower is that you don’t fancy the thought of drowning… or accidentally plugging the drain with your foot, flooding the basin, and soaking the bathroom floor.

(You’d been sick; it’d been an accident.)

You do the bare minimum to get yourself clean, then shut off the water and sag against the tile wall. It’s a full five minutes before you can convince yourself to get out of the shower, and even then it’s with a great deal of mental swearing and complaining.

You get dry, find some pajamas (which are really just one of Piotr’s shirts and a pair of clean underwear), then crawl onto the end of your bed and curl up under the throw blanket you keep there for decorative purposes.

And, finally, sleep claims you.

 ***

 You get all of five minutes before the door to yours and your husband’s bedroom opens.

“Myshka.”

You groan and crawl further under the throw blanket. “Y/N is not available right now. Please leave a message at the sound of the ‘fuck.’”

Piotr laughs softly, and you can hear a plate and a glass clatter against his nightstand before the soft, rustling sounds of the blankets and pillows being moved fill your ears. “Come on, moya lyubov’. Breakfast is—”

“I will jam a pancake up your ass.”

He laughs again –then gently cradles you in his arms and sets you at the top of the bed, against a pile of pillows. He sets a warm plate of food in your lap, then sets a fork and knife on the top edge of the plate. “You need to eat, myshka. You have had long night.”

You groan, reluctantly pry one eye open, then sigh resignedly when you see a stack of chocolate chip pancakes, a helping of bacon, two slices of banana bread, and a heap of hash browns. “Carbs. You would know the way to my heart.”

“I would hope so.” He sits next to you on the bed, takes your hand in his, and kisses your bruised knuckles. “You are moya zhena, after all.”

He looks better than when you rescued him from Essex’s clutches. He’s showered, shaved, put on fresh clothes, combed his hair. There’s still shadows under his eyes and a bruise on his cheek, but he looks more like the Piotr you know and love.

You lift your hand to gently rub your thumb along the swell of his cheek, skirting the edge of his bruise –but then your low mood catches up with you, and you drop your hand and look down at your breakfast plate. “You don’t have to stay with me. I know you probably don’t want to.”

You can hear the frown in his voice when he speaks. “Why… why would I not want to be with you?”

“Because you’re ashamed of me,” you eke out, fighting back tears.

Piotr sighs heavily, then leans over and kisses your temple. “I am not ashamed of you. I love you. And… I owe you apology.”

“Apology?” You frown, then set your plate aside before looking up at him. “For what?”

“For not standing up for you more, to Scott.” He grimaces. “Ellie told me what happened. How Scott treated you.”

“That –that’s not your fault, Piotr,” you protest. “Scott’s an asshole because he wants to be; you’re not responsible for his dickotry.”

“Perhaps not—”

“And I can stand up for myself,” you add, eager to soothe his worries. “It’s –it’s not your job to have to do that for me. I’m more than capable of standing up for myself, I promise.”

He smiles softly, then kisses the back of your hand. “I know. It is nothing about ‘capable’ or ‘job.’ I… I know he picks at you. And others. And perhaps it is because I am complacent or non-confrontational, but… I do nothing. And that is not okay. And for that, I am sorry. I am sorry I have not protected you better, and I hope you can forgive me.”

You sniff, then wipe away the tears trailing down your cheeks. “Of course, I can forgive you, sweetheart. I…” You sniff again, and –finding yourself at a loss for words—repeat yourself. “I forgive you, Piotr. Always.”

“Spasibo, moya serdste.” He kisses your forehead, letting his lips linger for a moment, then leans back to rub at his own damp eyes. “Ellie also told me about… conversation she and you had before rescue mission. About position she and others put you in. We had long talk about respecting authority and listening to those with more experience; she wants to apologize, once you are ready.”

You let out a shaky breath, then nod. “I think I want to sleep first.”

“Konechno. After breakfast.”

You laugh wetly and roll your eyes. “Yes, fine, after breakfast, you big dad.”

He chuckles along with you, then none-too-subtly sets your plate back in your lap. “Shoe fits, I wear. Plate in front of you… you eat?”

You laugh at the adorable, impossibly hopeful look he gives you, then heap up some hash browns and pancake on your fork and shove the bite in your mouth. “There. Happy?”

“Immensely.” He hands you the glass of orange juice he brought up, but it slowly ebbs as he watches you eat, contemplation evident in his expression. “Why… why did you think… that I was disappointed in you?”

“Is this your way of saying you weren’t?” you ask tiredly.

He purses his lips, then sighs heavily. “Initially, I was… frustrated. And small bit disappointed. But once I understood,” Piotr says, angling his head to catch your gaze until you relent and look him in the eye, “I was not disappointed with you in slightest. I know you. I know you are not needlessly reckless. I know you would not carelessly put Ellie, or Russell, or Yukio in such dangerous position.”

“But you thought I was. Reckless and careless.”

“It looked that way, but I knew it was not you,” he says, sincere. “And I knew that you had to be desperate to turn to Mr. Castle, I just… did not have all pieces. So, again, why did you believe I was disappointed in you?”

“Because why wouldn’t you be?” You set your fork down, chest tight with hurt and sorrow and regret. “I –I failed! I couldn’t do things the ‘right’ way, I asked a vigilante and a –a murder for help, I couldn’t –I couldn’t keep Ellie and Russell and Yukio out of it—”

“You did your best,” Piotr says softly. He sets the plate back on the bed and draws you into his arms when you start crying again. “You knew that we were in danger –that child was in danger—and you had no help, so you went and found it.”

“But –but Ellie—”

“Put you in unfair position and did not respect your authority, so you did what you could to keep her and Russell and Yukio safe,” he murmurs, kissing the top of your head. “You did your best, myshka. And that is something I am very proud of.”

You burst into sobs, relief pouring over you, washing away the grief and hurt and self-loathing you’d held in over the course of the night. You cling to him, clenching the material of his shirt in your fists as you shake and sniff and whimper.

And Piotr holds you. Rocks you back and forth. Whispers how much he loves you and how proud he is of you and kisses your hair and the bridge of your nose and your tear-streaked cheeks.

Eventually, you calm down. You catch your breath, inhaling and exhaling shakily as your husband rocks you back and forth. You lay your head on his shoulder, blinking the last of the tears away. “She’s right, you know.”

“Who is?”

“Ellie. About being an adult. We won’t be able to… to tell her what to do forever.”

“Nyet,” Piotr agrees, kissing your forehead gently. “But this is different. And she understands that now.”

You let out a shaky breath, then hug your husband tightly. “I love you, baby.”

He hugs you back just as tight. “And I love you, myshka.”

You tip your head back so you can kiss him, then let out a contented, relieved sigh when he presses his lips against yours.

You’re okay.

[sepublic]

Visorak

           These biomechanical spiders are considered synonymous with the mutagen they carry in their fangs; VISORAK, short for Virus of Reconstitution and Killing. The Visorak Horde is comprised of multiple packs that serve their creators, the Nynrah Ghosts, but have also proven to be rebellious and strong-willed in the past themselves. Programmed to enjoy hunting, all Visorak spiders have the innate urge to track down prey before paralyzing and injecting them with venom, and finally cocooning their victims to eventually mutate.

           Created early in the Nynrah Ghosts’ tenure, the Visorak served multiple purposes as guard-dogs, personal protectors, security, enforcers, etc. Their primary function however was to manually carry out the mutations of VISORAK by injecting various test subjects out in the wild with the virus, and then hauling back the infected to be analyzed by the Nynrah Ghosts. Prior the Nynrah Incident, Visorak spiders would be sent out into packs -usually with a designated squad leader- into what few areas of wilderness existed on Xia.

           Dispersing within the wild, the packs would randomly target prey –sometimes a specific species depending on the task of the day- and paralyze them with their Rhotuka spinners. From there, a victim would be injected with VISORAK, before being wrapped up into cocoons and hauled back to one of the Nynrah Ghosts’ laboratories.

           Cocooned victims are kept in a separate part of the facility. Sensors keep track of subjects’ life processes, with the cocoons providing an ideal environment for the most drastic of transformations. Some subjects are unable to survive their mutations, dying in the process; Such failures are dragged off by the Visorak spiders and thrown down a chute, to be processed into bio-matter. This fate occasionally applies to Vorox too weak to emerge from their cocoons without help, although some examples are still salvaged for analysis by the Nynrah Ghosts, just in case.

           Upon completing a mutation, the transformed victim tears their way out of the cocoon. Sensors and cameras monitoring patients’ activity notify the Nynrah Ghosts, who send down a Visorak pack to surround the cocoon, Rhotuka ready. From the webbing emerges a freshly-mutated, and often hostile, Vorox; Before the creature can fight back, the Visorak paralyze them with their Rhotuka, before dragging the subject to a secure prison cell to be analyzed and studied.

           Due to the randomized, drastic nature of VISORAK mutations, many retrieved experiments have yielded fascinating biologies and abilities, many of which have given the Nynrah Ghosts insight into the nature of Life itself. Many bioweapons have been genetically reverse-engineered from Vorox mutations, with the Nynrah Ghosts taking frequent inspiration from the wide variety of organisms that have resulted from VISORAK.

           As the main carriers of VISORAK, the biomechanical spiders are the ‘face’ of the mutagen, and meant to unlock the virus’ full potential by consistently infecting and carrying back subjects in a generally-controlled procedure. For a while, the Visorak Horde worked in the wilds, hunting without impunity, although some would continue their task even when given the order to head back home. Aside from the occasional uprising here or there, the Visorak Horde remained obedient.

          Some packs with skilled experience on their belt would be assigned with hunting down enemies of the Nynrah Ghosts, sometimes merely to paralyze and retrieve; Other times to mutate as well. However, there have been incidents of targets being mutated despite orders dictating otherwise- Such is the flaw of the innate programming of these creatures, meant to result in highly-intelligent pack hunters that can strategize and cooperate with one another, while also needing to hunt in order to feel satisfied.

          When the Nynrah Incident first began, packs of Visorak spiders were sent out to neutralize and contain infected citizens, before transporting them back to the Nynrah Ghosts’ facilities. As cases quickly sky-rocketed, nearly all Visorak packs were sent out onto the field at unprecedented rates, and the ability to keep track of all of them began to wear thin. Inevitably, as with their aforementioned rebelliousness, some Visorak packs got high on the hunting spree; So many Xians, some transformed and others still in the process, were available for them to pursue!

          Many of these packs became so immersed in their hunts that some even began to target non-infected Xians, mutating them; Some Vorox were even given a second dosage. The Nynrah Incident was a nightmare for many, but for the Visorak, it was paradise. And with their creators distracted and more permission to hunt than they had ever received in their lives, some packs of Visorak inevitably chose to defect from their masters. Most had never spent so much time beyond the facilities, allowed to rampage, with so much time between orders; They felt the allure of self-determination and couldn’t imagine leaving it behind.

          These rogue Visorak contributed even further to the Nynrah Incident, infecting more Xians and leaving their cocoons behind to eventually hatch horrific Vorox. The credibility of their Nynrah Ghost creators was called into question; Many Vahki were sent in to apprehend and control these rogue Visorak, to varying success. A few loyal packs were assigned with bringing back their defecting brethren; But upon encountering them, were quickly convinced to also rebel. Growing packs began to actively seek out loyal groups and induct them into their ranks.

          It was a disaster for the Nynrah Ghosts, and it eventually culminated in the district’s complete and total quarantine. As the dust began to settle and the trapped inhabitants of Nynrah adjusted to a new, chaotic lifestyle, many of them would continue to fear the Visorak Horde; Be it those serving the Nynrah Ghosts or operating under their own terms, either possibility was incredibly dangerous.

          After adapting to Nynrah’s downfall and even embracing the situation, the Nynrah Ghosts had their Visorak spiders operate almost entirely within the district. Packs would be sent out to mutate non-infected survivors, or even try injecting already-transformed Vorox with new strains of virus and mutagen. Deadly plagues would be tested upon the various monsters roaming Nynrah, while others would be captured and sent back to the Ghosts for analysis. It was a lifestyle that the Visorak Horde quickly enjoyed.

          For the rogue packs, many resisted attempts by the Nynrah Ghosts to recapture them; Such missions were usually carried about by non-Visorak servants, such as the bio-weapon Bruisers, a mechanical Slizer or Exo-Toa, and even a mercenary here or there. Trydahk set a new policy; Either detain and capture rogue spiders, or else kill them entirely so they won’t interfere with field-studies and experiments.

          The rogue Visorak continued their hunting sprees as they pleased, often meeting resistance from bands of Vorox; But otherwise they were unhindered, infecting and cocooning the non-mutated and even those who were already Vorox. Many Vorox, unable to handle a second dosage of VISORAK, have entered comas or even died from within their cocoons. Many of these rogue Visorak have also settled for outright killing their prey in wanton massacres.

          When the esteemed general Sidorak was banished to Nynrah, he adapted to the fallen district and seized control of a Visorak pack. Earning their respect as a leader and honorary ‘Visorak’, Sidorak was given a commemorative badge, hand-made by his troops to signify his newfound status. From there, Sidorak went on to incorporate other rogue packs into his growing army, using either diplomacy or force. Beneath Sidorak’s command, many rogue Visorak have defected from the Nynrah Ghosts, drawn to the allure of a lifestyle where one can hunt and kill as they please.

          Sidorak’s growing horde has gone on campaigns against enemy Vorox clans, as well as the Nynrah Ghosts, sabotaging facilities, creations, and experiments. Clans led by the likes of Malum or Kabrua have come into conflict with the Visorak, who seek to exterminate them and vice-versa. Since Sidorak’s tenure, his rogue Horde has engaged in repeated guerilla warfare against their enemies, and hope to one day topple the Nynrah Ghosts. Doing so would not only establish freedom for all Visorak spiders, but grant the Horde access to the resources needed to create many more of their kind…

          When The Shadowed One transported Xia to Okoto, the walls of Nynrah were heavily-damaged by the ensuing quakes, collapsing in multiple areas. Led by Sidorak, many of these rogue Visorak have escaped out onto not only Xia, but Okoto as well.

          As of the Xian-Okotan War, Visorak both loyal to the Nynrah Ghosts or Sidorak are now being employed by the Barraki as a brutal asset against their enemies. Under his master Makuta’s command, Sidorak is now leading his Visorak Horde against the Okotan Alliance, working with the Nynrah Ghosts he once fought against; The Nynrah Ghosts themselves are unhappy with Sidorak’s continued reign, and want him brought to justice.

          But as an esteemed Brotherhood of Makuta member with continued victories, Sidorak is allowed to operate. And as his successful campaigns have begun to stack up, more Visorak spiders are being made and transferred beneath his command under the Barraki and Makuta’s orders. Even spiders loyal to the Nynrah Ghosts find themselves working alongside these rogue packs, and are now beginning to question their current way of life.

          The Nynrah Ghosts are naturally anxious about this, and fear Sidorak will seize control of the entire Visorak Horde from them, converting the spiders into the Brotherhood of Makuta’s army. The Ghosts suspect this of being Makuta’s true intentions, and are considering having Sidorak assassinated; Such treacherous ideas are discussed in secret, and are being cautiously shared with Roodaka, CEO of Vortixx Industries…

          In the meantime, the Visorak Horde is greatly enjoying new hunts on the exotic island of Okoto, and find the change of scenery to be a welcome vacation. An entire islands’ worth of new species has been made available for them to hunt, and many Visorak spiders are invading to their hearts’ content. Many others are adapting to a new lifestyle of formalized warfare against the Okotan Alliance and Xian Revolution, but ultimately enjoying this as well.

          Since their arrival on Okoto, many Visorak have taken to targeting the mythical Rahi, putting them at odds with the shape-shifting Krahka. Attempts to capture the Kardas Dragon have all resulted in utter failure. As Okoto’s natural landscape is razed and damaged by the Visorak, many of its wildlife have taken to fighting back, putting up more of a fight than most of Xia’s beasts. The success of certain species has varied, with Rock Raptors and their Spiny Stone Ape allies faring well; Others, like the Kikanalo, are suffering devastating losses, whilst creatures such as Sea Skimmers are outright huntingthe Visorak for sport!

          The Visorak themselves are also curious regarding their Brotherhood allies; Many are fascinated by the Skull Warriors’ undead, indestructible nature, while others withhold the urge to hunt and mutate animals controlled by the Skull Spiders. The Visorak and Energy Leeches are hostile towards one another, and have gotten into spats in the past, with varying victories on either side. Energy Leeches that have developed into stronger stages tend to handle Visorak with ease, draining their spinners mid-air. The Visorak are both mortified and fascinated by their rivals’ strength, and wish to openly fight with the Energy Leeches despite being less numerous.

          Visorak are massive, biomechanical spiders, with each one about the size of a fully-grown adult and more than capable of subduing humans on their own. Armed with an armored carapace and crest on their heads, Visorak have the standard eight legs of spiders, with their front pair acting as forelimbs. Visorak have massive, metallic mandibles with which to attack prey and handle objects; Their venom is injected through a smaller pair of syringe-like fangs.

          Built within the abdomen of a Visorak is a Rhotuka launcher. As a result of their manmade status, the Visorak are able to rotate through a variety of Rhotuka powers at will; Their standard Spinner paralyzes prey by shutting down multiple parts of the nervous system, while enabling vital organs to continue functioning. Other abilities include activating the nerves to transmit signals of pure, agonizing pain; Bloating the bodies of victims, causing them to float to the surface of water; Absorbing nutrition and directly transmitting it back to the Visorak; And acid that can melt through even steel.

          In addition to this wide variety of abilities, Visorak also possess many other traits as well. They can see in total darkness, and possess enhanced senses to detect prey. Their tracking and hunting abilities are potent, and they’re adapted for long-distance hunts. Visorak have potent camouflaging abilities that make them nearly invisible, and can slow down their life-processes to just short of death, making them hard to detect; This ability also enables Visorak to enter periods of rest and hibernation should sustenance remain scarce.

          The armored head of a Visorak can temporarily harden to become resistant to physical harm, enabling the spiders to charge forward like living battle rams. Disturbingly, the Visorak can also perfectly mimic sounds and voices, and will often echo the voices of trusted allies to confuse and disorient enemies, lulling them into a false sense of security or greatly unnerving them; It is not uncommon for a felled Visorak to deter an enemy by begging for its life in the voice of a loved one.

          Visorak are able to naturally skate on the surface of water, although they can deactivate this ability to pursue underwater targets. Luckily, they are poor swimmers; If a Visorak wishes to return to the surface, their bodies can synthesize buoyant gases that will cause their bodies to float upwards, before releasing them from the mouth.

          A Visorak’s living components consist of protodermal tissue, which is more durable and longer-lasting than regular organic fibers, and yields greater strength. As a result of their protodermis-based bodies, Visorak are immune to their own venom, as well as certain other poisons; Protodermis is more inflexible than flesh and thus resistant to change.

          Their green, protodermis-based webs are strong and powerful, thicker and more durable than a typical spider’s. These webs sometimes spew a fog that conceals the surrounding area, obscuring it for ambushes; Visorak often mark their territory with these webs, wrapping up entire areas within them. These webs are sticky and cling, but Visorak are able to climb along them with ease.

          Visorak also use their webs for hunting, laying traps for prey, or shooting strands from their mouths or abdomen. A message-system has been incorporated by the Visorak with these webs, with mile-long strands strewn across areas; Visorak can message and signal one another by tapping along these webs in a manner similar to morse code. Nests and hideouts are often sealed with barriers of webbing that are easily torn-apart by Visorak and then replaced, and the Horde’s fortifications can be found containing cocooned victims as a form of morbid hunting trophies.

          As a result of their programming, both genetic and technical, the Visorak are highly-aggressive pack hunters. A social species, they tend to organize themselves into groups, often deferring to a leader decided through a contest of strength. Visorak are remorseless, ruthless individuals who want only to hunt as they see fit, mutating or killing all in sight.

          This desire is innate, a natural part of their programming to create the perfect hunter; But it can also backfire as well. Many Nynrah Ghosts have found their Visorak difficult to handle, as they desire to hunt even when ordered to go home; Due to their respect for powerful authority, the spiders will often contest and question the strength of their creators. They can sense weakness, and will often act upon it.

          Visorak will only yield to those they see as strong, possessing rebellious wills. Even without the influence of Sidorak, many chose to defect against the Nynrah Ghosts, while others even plotted to overthrow their creators. To keep them in line, the Nynrah Ghosts have relied on methods of pain, force, and fear. Many packs have chafed greatly beneath the strict control of their masters, and resent them for it.

          Despite their hostility, the Visorak are capable of loyalty and respect. As mentioned before, they value strength and powerful leadership; Those who serve under Sidorak do so loyally, valuing the general for his brilliant tactics and comradery with underlings. Sidorak has often personally commended a Visorak and rewarded them for success on the battlefield, and it is beneath his command that many spiders enjoy thrilling hunts on a regular basis.

          When left to their own devices, Visorak will sometimes wrestle with one another using their mandibles, to pass the time- They are patient when hunting, but restless otherwise. Sometimes Visorak torture prey with their Rhotuka, acting on their natural love of torment. These attitudes of sadism and respecting power are preconceived notions, programmed into the Visorak to make them both potent hunters and brutal exterminators.

           In regards to their minds, Visorak are highly-intelligent creatures, able to strategize and coordinate effectively to hunt, and even anticipate the actions of prey. They possess their own language, referring to themselves as ‘Stealers of Life’ and ‘Poisonous Scourge’ in their tongue. Visorak are borderline-sapient, although they lack much of a discernible ‘culture’ due to their sole interest in hunting, nor are they able to read. Despite this, Visorak can perfectly understand orders and even ‘speak’ by mimicking voices. They are curious creatures, and require stimulation.

          Personalities exist and vary somewhat amongst the species, with some more pre-disposed for leadership than others. Visorak can argue and question loyalties, exercise creative problem-solving, and potentially even consider their place in the universe. All feel genuine emotions, from hatred and fear, to thrill, and even respect- They may even be capable of happiness and genuine love. Visorak possess the personal concept of names for one another and themselves, further contributing to the argument for their sapience. They can be instructed to build entire structures by webbing together pieces of debris, and craft complex web-systems across their territory.

           While Visorak are undoubtedly creatures with a natural hostility towards all, there are some who consider and even argue for their right to exist as living creatures; However, their manmade status and threat puts this right into question. The Visorak cannot be blamed for their pre-programmed natures, but they nevertheless act upon them; However, it is not like they have ever had access to an environment that would not only allow, but even encourage peace and pacifism.

           And despite their general aggression towards outsiders, exceptions have been made not only for individuals but even entire species; The Visorak exist in symbiosis with the bioweapons known as Venom Flyers, with the latter often acting as scouts and air-support for the swarms, in exchange for food ensnared by the spiders. Similarly, ant-like Colony Drones regularly provide Rhotuka spinners containing energy edible to the Visorak- Though it should be noted that the Visorak keep the Colony Drones alive for sustenance, and that their good relations are likely programmed.

          Colony Drones are an invention of the Nynrah Ghosts specifically made to feed the Visorak and keep them in line; Sidorak managed to gather many of them to feed his rogue Horde. Visorak can also feed themselves through the draining-power of their Rhotuka, which was programmed as a failsafe should the Colony Drones be compromised- This method does not yield as much nutrition as a Colony Drone’s spinner, however.

          Curiously, the Visorak have been observed to spare Silver Chute Spiders, passing over and sparing the arachnids completely; The Nynrah Ghosts have no explanation for this, and are certain this behavior was not programmed. Perhaps it is a fluke in the programming, or maybe the Visorak feel a comradery with these spiders- They also seem to respect the rarer Fikou Nui bioweapon as well. Regular Fikou and other spiders are not nearly as lucky with the Visorak, paradoxically enough.

          Amidst the brutal Xian-Okotan conflict and Core War, nobody really has the patience nor resources to test theories of co-existence with the Visorak, and the Horde cares little for the opinions of others. If the war comes to an end, the spiders will likely be exterminated, or else placed into indefinite stasis. For now, the Visorak remain an infamous threat that is both feared and hated by enemies and allies alike.

[soysaucevictim]

Weeks 7 & 2.

-

Apr. 25

I got up a bit before 1PM.

First, today’s DD. 40 squat + step back with EC. This was just manageable.

Second, Day 37 of the 60DoC. Level 3, 1′ rest. Just manageable, but got me pretty winded. I did like how it starts more aerobic/intense and drops off in each set. Really liking the overall structure of this program!

Third, Day 7 of the C&AC. 3x push-ups to failure. Went for 24-18-12 again. Pretty challenging, might’ve been a bit sloppier than the past few days - but good enough for today. We try to tighten up my form again, next time.

Last, Day 7 of the DSC. I just did some jabs+crosses for the 100 - swapping stances at 50. A fun one, as usual.

I then did some dishes, made some dinner, worked on my WRAP, and eventually got some more art progress in.

Didn’t get to bed on time, even though I had every opportunity to do so. But given productivity, I wasn’t so upset about that.

-

Apr. 26

I woke up around the same time as yesterday, proper.

First, today’s DD. 40 plank-knee-to-elbows with EC (from knees, 20/20.) This was relatively breezy work, does take a bit of focus to remain balanced. But that made it enjoyable.

Second, Day 38 of the 60DoC. Level 3, 1′ rest. Those jumping lunges were pretty much the sole reason for not keeping the rests shorter. Got me pretty bushed and I regretted just having ginger snaps beforehand. :P

Third, Day 8 of the C&AC. 4x20 shoulder taps. Decided to heed the given rests again. It takes a bit of resolve to keep the plank still and not rock.

Last, Day 8 of the DSC. Same approach and experience as yesterday.

I spent a good deal of the rest of my day archiving some fit log entries and making a therapy journal entry covering mid-Feb to end of March. That took a lot more time and energy than anticipated, but it was necessary.

Despite that, I was able to get to bed in the yellow zone.

-

Apr. 27

I woke up a bit before noon today. (Yay!)

First, today’s DD. 1′ flutter kicks with EC. I counted 90 reps by the end of it - 1.5/sec was a p good pace. But it was a bit of a case of “how many seconds left, already?“

Second, Day 39 of the 60DoC. Level 3, 30″ rest. After a false start plus the first couple sets - I wasn’t sure if that amount of rest was sustainable. But after warming up as I went + digging in, I was able to get  to the end. Arm raises were a nice breather moment, but did take some juice out of my arms.

Third, Day 9 of the C&AC. 3x push-ups to failure. 24-18-10, again. This was certainly made a lot tougher because of arm fatigue - but I got through it (not with the most stellar form, but whatever.)

Last, Day 9 of the DSC. For today’s 100 punches, same appoach as the past couple days. But unlike them - accrued muscle fatigue did make things less breezy (despite still being fun to do.)

Did some dishes, made some dinner, chatting, and art progress afterwards.

Barely got to bed in the yellow zone. I will take it.

-

Apr. 28

Another day I got up before noon again.

First, today’s DD. 40 side bridges with EC (20/20). This was a bit of a challenge, but manageable. It’s a bit funny to try to switch sides as quickly as you can.

Second, Day 40 of the 60DoC. Level 3, 1′ rest. Everything was relatively okay, except them squat hops. Quads and especially haves got real tired. Did have a few moments flirting with that bliss point that jacks seem to create - but alas the load didn’t hit that Goldilocks Zone.

Third, Day 10 of the C&AC. 4x22 shoulder taps. Pretty simple and relatively breezy - because the arms had plenty of juice after previous workout.

Last, Day 10 of the DSC. Didn’t do anything fancy/different this time. But it was pretty fun, as usual.

Spent some time chatting and reading after that. Took a pretty late shower before going to bed (in the yellow, again.)

-

Apr. 29

I woke up around the same time again.

Spent time on the usual before heading out to the laundromat to get laundry done (sick of dealing with the Uncle at this fucking point). Listened to some Sawbones while I folded up my laundry and got going with my exercise.

First, today’s DD. 2′ squat hold punches with EC. This was right intense, especially after the first 1′. I counted 275 reps by the end.

Second, Day 41 of the 60DoC. Level 3, 1′ rest. I didn’t look forward to the up & down today. I opted to do all transitions in steps.

Third, Day 11 of the C&AC. 4x push-ups to failure. 24-18-12-6. This was rough and got a bit sloppy. Especially when stacked on top of the main workout. Took awhile to get the ears to feel okay - so that load might not have been the best to target (given the added set).

Last, Day 11 of the DSC. After a good few minutes sitting on floor to get various pressures to stabilize, I went for it. Nothing otherwise different about the experience/approach.

Afterwards, spent some time chatting, fiddling with Habitica, and listening to Sawbones. But, I did get to bed in the yellow zone again.

-

Apr. 30

I woke up closer to 11AM, today.

After a bit of YouTube, I went into today’s exercise.

First, today’s DD.20 raised leg crunches with EC. Manageable, form was just okay. But I felt good enough to count it.

Second, Day 42 of the 60DoC. Level 3, no rest. This was made possible by being mostly march steps and entirely pretty low-impact work. Nice step down from yesterday.

Third, Day 12 of the C&AC. 4x24 shoulder taps. Not much worth noting other than it was doable work.

Last, Day 12 of the DSC. Did nothing fancy/creative with my punches, today. But I do still enjoy doing them!

Spent time watching YouTube, listening to Sawbones, and some art progress.

But, for once I barely got to bed in the green zone.

-

May 1

I woke up before noon again.

First thing I did was today’s DD. 2′ jumping jacks with EC. I spent the start going deliberately slowish to find a pace I could sustain, but I find myself going faster anyways. I counted 118 reps by the end, very nearly hit 1/sec on average. But it was no less intense.

Afterward, spent time fixing up the family the next Hello Fresh meal - Cheesy Portobello Mushroom Cups. This was just middling. Might do better in stemming the mushrooms a little more. I personally enjoyed it well enough.

Then, I found myself helping a family member down from an anxiety spike. And I felt kind of accomplished?

Did some work putting together sleep data and making a therapy journal entry for April.

Watched the new Sanders Sides episode with a friend (who I recently got them interested in it.) Which, let me tell you, was DENSE with ideas to chew on. I loved it.

Last things I did before bed were dishes and trying out another gratitude challenge for the month. I barely got to bed in the yellow zone, but I’ll take it for what it is.

[pivot2thrive]

A Self-Empowered Approach to “Powerlessness”

Talk to most people who work with people struggling with addictions and the notion of powerlessness comes up with pronounced regularity.  If you don't admit you are powerless then you are in denial and you will not recover. This is the foundational assertion for all 12 Step based programs addressing problems with addictive behavior.   Certain medical researchers seem to align around this notion by citing differences in brain structure pertaining to various gray matter and white matter areas in the Default Mode Network (DMN).  Addicts just can't not and they need to acknowledge this so that they can begin to change.

This begs the question of what powerless even means and, even further, it begs the question of what an addiction is.  Let's start with powerlessness.

People can choose to attend a meeting instead of heading to the bar.  Does that represent powerlessness or is that a self-empowered approach to change?

Often times I wonder if the notion of powerlessness was really meant to represent acceptance, acceptance that the choices I made, circumstances that happened, trauma and memories experienced, habituated self-talk engaged, social groups choices made (including isolation), and my psychological disposition have all woven together to form a present state of me that hasn't been working well, not in active addiction certainly and maybe not all that well outside of active addiction too.  In a sense, I need to accept the reality that how things have been working hasn't been working.  But in this case, acceptance of what is is not powerlessness.  Millions upon millions have proven that a process of change can take hold.  Choices can be made to seek help, to go to meetings, to change circumstances, live with a different purpose, etc.

Habits encode into our DMN and are characterized by automaticity.  Through practice and repetition what was once choice becomes automatic.  This can be both the gift and the curse of life.  Habits take up less energy than decisions that require our Task Processing Network (TPN) to make executive decisions and this can make life better when the habits are targeted toward that which connects us to a meaningful purpose.  But bad habits become the bane of our existence or perhaps the thorn in one's side that the apostle Paul laments.  Perhaps, what we are powerless over is the fact that we've built our habits to their current state of being in our minds.  Habituated thinking happens faster than executive thinking which is why so many label their "alcoholic or addict" minds and say that their first thought is wrong.  In reality, this has little to do with being an alcoholic or addict but rather simply being a human with a habituated pattern of thinking.

But are we powerless to change our habits?  The evidence is quite clear that the answer is no.  We can change our habits. To be clear, its not easy, but it is certainly do-able, as anyone who's ever given up smoking can attest.  Great books on the subject are Atomic Habits and Good Habits, Bad habits which are currently out now.

Many industry leaders (including Tom Horvath) have said that addiction is an extreme form of habit. Marc Lewis speaks to the nature of the learning process when discussing the Biology of Desire.

So, how do I change my bad habits?

First, I need to become aware of them.  Social groups are great places to uncover our bad habits.  If I have a habit pattern of picking my nose at home, I might not generate awareness about the habit (43% of our daily activities are out of our awareness).  But, if you put me in a work environment around other executives, I'll become quite aware quickly and there will be a strong social influence towards changing that habit (social influence can be quite powerful).  Honestly, I think this is one of the reasons for the success of recovery groups like SMART or 12 Steps.  We help each other see when we are picking our noses (hopefully metaphorically).

Second, I need to be aware of my purpose and values.  Does this habit align with what I truly value and how I want to live my life?  Understanding purpose helps to prioritize habits that are useful vs. those that are detrimental.  From this, I identify new habits that I'd like and old habits that I'd like to eliminate.

Third, I build in active practices to wire in a new habit that replaces the old.  Neurons that fire together wire together.  This means building habits requires repetition as it is the firing together over and over again that strengthens the wiring connection (automaticity).  Neurons that fire apart wire apart.  This is a gift toward old habits as when they are not used, the strength of the habit decreases.  I am self-empowered to actively design and tailor my life to help wire in good habits and wire out bad habits.  It’s a never-ending process but one that, when done effectively, snowballs as little habit upon little habit stacks into a life lived with automaticity toward well being.  I can't do them all at once and I can't do them in one sitting, but they can get better over time and practice.

Last, I am compassionate with myself as this process is not easy and I do not always do it well.  It is a learning process and such a process implicitly includes some level of failure.  I reorient myself with a growth mindset to know that I am getting better and if I fall, I get back up and acknowledge that the only true failure is staying down.

There are many tools that SMART outlines that address components of changing our lives.  The Hierarchy of Values tool helps us to prioritize and helps give us our answer to the question of "Why?" when things get tough.  In many ways, when we get to the D - dispute portion of the ABC model, what we are really trying to do is change habituated patterns of thinking so that our new B is useful or a good habit of thinking.  The social component of doing these things together with others helps us to become aware, to have hope and to push forward.

Mindfulness helps to rewire the brain by creating awareness of habituated thinking and engaging non-judgmental practices to begin the process of rewiring the architecture of the DMN.   Attachment focused therapy helps us to rewire insecure attachment patterns and relationship styles which likely became habituated through experience and repetition into our attachment styles (and God knows that relationships have always been a big key to issues/triggers with problematic addictive behavior).

We are powerless if we stay isolated and disconnected and we continue to operate at the level of thinking, feeling and behaving that got us to the addiction.  When here, my sense is that we operate from a base of learned helplessness.  But we do not have to stay powerless.  Millions have changed before us, we are not helpless, we can create a new and better life, we can develop better relationships, we can choose purpose and meaning and we can transform that which we do automatically from that which hurts us to that which helps us.  In short, we can mature.  This is the journey of all humans.  It's not an easy journey but it is a worthwhile one.

[heartslogos]

the declassified texts of the inquisition’s elite [125]

403):  Oh the sweet dreamless sleep of drugs (1-403):  You? On what? Why? - (828):  Stop calling me, Mom. I'm in his closet. You're gonna blow my cover and I'm about to catch this lying SOB. -

“Max. Do I even need to say why I’m calling you?”

“Cousin. Evelyn. Lyn. Ev. It’s a joke.”

“You sound like you were run over by a tractor.”

“That’s not a joke.”

“No, Max. It isn’t. You sound terrible. What happened? Also tell me that you’re on something prescribed by a doctor who’s had access to your medical files.”

“Of course it’s from a doctor,” Max sounds irritated. “How reckless do you think I am? I’m on a good streak right now and my lyrium doses are at an all time low to the point where my program director thinks I might be able to completely wean off in the next four to five months if I stay on this track. I’m not going to ruin that by getting addicted to pain medication or sleep aides.” Max pauses. “Though with the frequency in which I’m being given morphine and various other forms of pain medication maybe we should look into that. Just to make sure I’m not accidentally getting addicted. I mean. Look. I’m not craving anything. I don’t think. But maybe we don’t put me on any assignments that would put me in situations what would require me to get shots of morphine for a few months and see how that goes.”

Evelyn opens the door to her office, sticking her head out and looking around. She spots Josephine’s office door open as well and gestures at the woman. Josephine catches her eye, also on the phone, but puts the receiver against her shoulder and shoots a questioning look at Evelyn.

Evelyn does her best to dramatically mouth Max’s name at Josephine. Either it works or Josephine’s going to think she’s gone off the rails extra early on a Wednesday morning, but Josephine nods and returns to her phone call. Evelyn tunes back into Max’s side of the conversation in time to hear Max complaining about how she doesn’t get on anyone else’s case about prescription drug use.

“It’s because not everyone is my cousin, the only family I have that I can say I care about with completely sincerity,” Evelyn replies. “And not everyone I know is currently weaning off of lyrium doses. There’s Cullen but he’s almost never doing active field work so I don’t have to worry there. The worst that can happen is him getting some kind of ulcer from stress, in which case I probably have other things to worry about that aren’t him getting addicted to pain killers. Like what the hell is going on with the chain of command and delegation of duties that my commander is suffering stomach ulcers.”

“Oh, Evelyn, you do care.” Max coughs. And then gags. “I’m going to hang up because if I get vomit on my phone or drop it in the toilet again and need to get it repaired or replaced the requisitions people are going to have me drawn and quartered.”

Evelyn’s email notification alert goes off at the same time Max hangs up. She checks it and sees Josephine has forwarded Max’s current assignments and reports to her.

Evelyn quickly taps out a thank you and heads to her computer to open them. Maybe she should get Max a desk job. She wonders how adverse Cullen would be to having Max off of his roster for a while. He’s got one of the best performance and success rates among their higher ranking staff, but at the same time — Max’s tendency to get hurt is troubling on so many levels.

-

“I have so many questions for you,” Leliana says as she flips through Herah’s report. “I have to tell you, Adaar. I’ve been in this business for years. I’ve had contacts who’ve been in this line of work for as long as I have. Not once have I ever had a mission fail and the excuse be because the agent’s mother blew their cover. Truly, Adaar, you are a special case among special cases.”

She closes the folder and tosses it onto a stack of other similar folders of mission failures that she’s been calling agents in to discuss for the past few days before final performance reviews are due to Josephine.

“Any further details you’d like to provide other than the wonderful brief and enticingly curious sentence, ‘mission ended in failure with agent’s location being revealed due to repeated calls from the agent’s mother’?” Leliana leans back in her chair, hands folded over her stomach. “Because, believe you me, this report caused a lot of people to start talking all the way up the chain. From intake all the way to the command table. We are all just dying to know further details. Such as how your mother had access to your work phone while you were on an extremely important mission. Shall we start there?”

“Yeah, that’s a fair question to ask.”

“Oh, it’s fair is it? How generous of you to label it as such.” Leliana taps something on her keyboard.

“Are you recording me?”

“It’s the Inquisition, Adaar. You have an eighty percent chance of being recorded at all times.” Leliana smirks. “That said? In this instance, I’m video calling several other interested parties and have them all on mute while you tell us all the details of how your mother ruined your perfect game.”

“Ah — fucking come on. I mess up once and you give me this kind of grief? What the fuck guys? I don’t see you guys pulling this kind of shit on Trevelyan or Blackwall. You don’t give Bull this kind of shit.”

Leliana turns her computer monitor to show at least ten other people looking incredibly excited. Herah flips them off.

“You messed up once, but you messed up in such a spectacular way that it can’t go unaddressed,” Leliana says. “Stop stalling and tell us everything. Do I have to pull phone logs, Adaar? Because I already have and because you’re such a good agent I’d prefer to spare you the humiliation of distributing them to all of our colleagues.”

[auskultu]

THE NEW LEFT TURNS TO MOOD OF VIOLENCE IN PLACE OF PROTEST

Paul Hofman, The New York Times, 7 May 1967

“We are working to build a guerrilla force in an urban environment,” said the national secretary of the left-wing Students for a Democratic Society, Gregory Calvert, one day recently.

“We are actively organizing sedition,” he said.

Mr. Calvert, a 29-year-old former history teacher, spoke pleasantly about revolution in his dingy office on Chicago's Skid Row. The threat of violence in his words characterizes the current radicalization of the New Left.

A maze of factions with a penchant for verbosity and a hankering for actions, the New Left wants emphatically to be distinct from the old left—the socialist and Communist movements whose history goes back over generations.

Ebullience and Frustration Just how distinct it has become was made clear during a three-week series of interviews with some 75 New Left activists and sympathizers from coast to coast. Most of them were younger than 30, and some sounded much more truculent than members of the Moscow-oriented Communist party, U. S. A.

The spirit of resistance and direct action constitutes perhaps the major attitude in the New Left today. Other findings in this assessment of the New Left's mood are as follows:

An ebullience over the impact of opposition to the war in Vietnam, which emotionally involves some members of the middle class and leads them to New Left positions also on domestic issues.

A frustration resulting from the lack of New Left political power and the failures of “peace” candidates in national and local elections.

A virulent factionalism similar to the doctrinaire old left feuds, a factionalism that is being exploited by extremists. up with leftist and “anti-imperialist” movements in Latin America, Europe and emerging nations.

The growth of a broadening “hippie” segment, mainly on the East and West Coasts, occasionally Joining the New Left in demonstrations but also worrying it because drug users and beatniks tend to withdraw from society instead of attempting to reform or revolutionize it.

The drifting apart of young whites and Negroes, close allies in the civil rights battles in the South a few years ago, as black power extremism spreads in Northern ghettos.

‘Che Lives in Our Hearts' If there is one dominant hero of the New Left mood, perhaps he is Ernesto Che Guevara.

Mr. Calvert, the beardless, ruddy-faced national secretary of Students for a Democratic Society, said:

“Che’s message is applicable to urban America as far as the psychology of guerrilla action goes. . . . Che sure lives in our hearts.”

Che Guevara, the Argentine-born revolutionary who was an associate of Premier Fidel Castro of Cuba, disappeared more than two years ago and is rumored to be leading insurgents somewhere in the Andean fastnesses.

A long way from the South American sierras, a surprising number of young left-wing intellectuals were found to revere the Argentinian adventurer. Rebellious students who spoke with equal disdain about “Establishment liberals” and “Communist squares” professed the cult of the “pure” man of revolutionary action.

Posters of Che Guevara and of Malcolm X, the black nationalist slain here two years ago, are advertised for sale “at special bulk rates” in a San Francisco monthly, The Movement. The radical publication disaffiliated recently from the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the militant, Southern-oriented movement that used to be one of the pillars of the New Left but has lately veered toward black power goals and away from Students for a Democratic Society.

‘I'm No Pacifist' Che Guevara’s bearded likeness was encountered on the walls of the littered offices of radical newspapers and left-wing groups. His name cropped up in talks in college cafeterias whenever the New Left’s current infatuation with direct action was mentioned.

“I recognize that violence may be necessary, I'm no pacifist,” said a vibrant young woman who has done much work for the New Left, Leni Zeiger. “I’m a white, middle-class girl, but I understand why Negroes, Puerto Ricans or Okies riot. I feel the same frustrations in myself, the same urge to violence.���

Ann Arbor is important on the New Left map because Students for a Democratic Society was born there some six year ago. The movement’s first national convention in Port Huron Mich., in June, 1962, produce a basic New Left manifesto.

This rejected “paranoiac anti-Communism” while blaming the Soviet Union for suppressing opposition. It strongly attacked American capitalism, denounce the “hypocrisy of America ideals” and advocated a vaguely defined . “participatory democracy.”

Several S.D.S. member asked for practical examples of “participatory democracy” in action, pointed to the Yugoslav system of workers’ council running nationalized business enterprises.

Amendments to the “Port Huron Statement” have made the S.D.S. program completely agnostic on Communism, opening the door to membership of Communists.

Since then, Students for Democratic Society has gone through various phases, aided the Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee in the South, it went into the Northern ghettos to organize their inhabitants, and lately it has swung back onto the campus.

Some of the ghetto efforts a still alive. Among them are the Newark Community Unity Project—directed by Tom Hayden, a cofounder of S.D.S. a main author of the Port Huron manifesto— and Chicago’s Jobs or Income Now (J.O.I.N.).

In the short but lively history of S.D.S., 1967 is the year of the “prairie guys,” the national leaders who were elect at a convention in a Methodist camp at Clear Lake, Iowa, in September. Nick Egleson, president, Carl Davidson, vice president, Mr. Calvert and their friends are leading S.D.S., in Davidson’s words, “from protest to resistance."

Action Above Ideology Mr. Calvert described himself as a “post-Communist revolutionary," putting action above ideology. Dee Jacobsen, assistant national secretary a headquarters manager, said t North Vietnamese whom S.D.S representatives had got in touch with “cannot understand we don't take any direct action."

The three-room, $125-a-month national headquarters of Students for a Democratic Society is at 1608 West Madison Street Chicago's Skid Row. It is close to the area of last summer’s Negro rioting.

Despite the squalid settling, the headquarters looks more affluent than it did at its torn location near the University Chicago campus on the city’s South Side.

Last year there was picturesque clutter: now there is disorderliness. There are boxes outgoing and incoming mail, staffers who answer telephones and an ancient safe with a combination lock.

"We are getting ready the revolution." Mr. Jacobsen joked with a thin smile while visitor remarked on the new look.

Mr. Jacobsen said he abandoned psychiatric hospital work to become a full-time S.D.S. organizer because he thought “my life was getting unbelievable.”

Mr. Calvert and Mr. Jacob said S.D.S. had some 200 chapters, with 8,000 dues-pay members and at least 25.1 other supporters who participated in chapter activities.

These activities, the S.D.S. leaders said, are centered on enlisting young men to evade military duty by “insubordinate, legal and illegal emigration Canada, going underground America—everything.’’

Students for a Democratic Society is organizing “draft resistance unions" and has “national draft resistance ordinator."

A Change of Plan The resistance-fomenting leadership has only contempt for electoral campaigns “peace" candidates and is hostile toward more protest demonstrations. The leadership first decided not to participate in Spring Mobilization anti-war demonstrations of last April deeming them a futile exert but was overruled at a meeting of the movement’s national council in Cambridge early in April.

The national leaders still not seem to think much of mobilization, and they have hinted at possibly even sterner action than resistance to the draft.

"Some of our members undoubtedly will help” in ghetto riots this summer, Mr. Jacobsen said.

A former S.D.S. organizer, who asked that he not be named, ridiculed the present leadership’s talk of urban guerrillas.

"Greg Calvert has read something about leftist terrorist commandos in Caracas,” he said, "and he and his friends think they are Venezuelans. They are becoming a sect. Romantic and out of touch with reality.”

He said infiltrators from the pro-Peking Progressive Labor party had gained control of a least one S.D.S. chapter in Chicago. He did not name it.

Other New Left moderates suggested that the verbal militancy in S.D.S. headquarter might mask an inferiority complex vis-i-vis Negro racists who had already made up their minds that violence was necessary to attain black power.

“Black nationalists are stacking Molotov cock tails and studying how they can hold a few city blocks in an uprising, how to keep off the fire brigade and the police so that the National Guard must be called out,” a white Ohio student said. "And they're right. We ought to help them where we can, but we oughtn’t be hung up with leading or liberating the Negroes."

In Praise of Black Power Mr. Calvert conceded that S.D.S. had few Negro member He said:

“Black power is absolutely necessary. When we have organized the white radicals we can link up with the Negro radicals."

This seemed to imply a lack of such a link at present.

In the view of Jack Newfield, assistant editor of The Village Voice, the Greenwich Village newspaper, and a former S.D.S member, the radicalization of New Left movements results from a feeling of hopelessness “The situation is getting more oppressive," he said. “Look at Alabama, look at Georgia, look at the war in Vietnam."

At the Internal Security Division of the Department of Justice, an official said “it is obvious that these [New Left] groups are becoming more and more vociferous and threatening“ in protesting against the war in Vietnam and calling for sedition.” However, he said was unable to comment on he serious a threat to law and order these groups were.

He said that “we are following closely the activities some of these groups,” keeping in mind that the First Amendment to the Constitution protects freedom of speech. He said violations of the Universal Military Training and Service Act and the Sedition Act were being investigated but declined to indicate whether prosecutions were on the increase.

Talks with police officers a community leaders in various cities found most in agreement that only a small hard core leftist activists is determined to defy the law—maybe no more than a few hundred across the nation. The number of young New Left militants who advocate violence is grown, it was found, but whether the increasingly radical talk can be translated into unlawful action is controversial.

A potential threat to law and order from New Left radicals was seen in areas where racial disorders this summer are feared, including Cleveland, Chicago and, possibly New York.

Numerically, the New Left remains weak. The figure 200,000 adherents nationwide that is often mentioned by sympathizers seems exaggerated.

Staughton Lynd’s View In the New Left itself, campus talk about direct act Is only rarely frightening, does not frighten Staughton Lynd, who at the age of 38 often called an "elder statesman" of the New Left.

The guerrilla concept is "is descriptive" of the new radical trend, he said in an interview. He appeared to distinguish tween active violence and civil disobedience, which he himself practiced at the end of 1966 when he defied the United States Government and visited Hanoi with Mr. Hayden, S.D.S. cofounder, and Dr. Hebert Aptheker, the leading theoretician of the Communist Party, U.S.A.

Mr. Lynd, an associate professor of history at Yale University, who has been influenced by Quaker pacifism, said he expected to receive a leave of absence from Yale and move to Chicago teach at an S.D.S.-backed course for community organizers. Graduates of the school may assist draft resistors or defend the interests of the poor in housing and welfare, he said.

Mr. Lynd stressed that “solid base of local organization" was more important the New Left than going quickly into national politics.

“I believe in local polital candidates” of the New Left said.

A more sanguine assessment of the New Left's political sensibilities was given by Booth, who was S.D.S. national secretary before Mr. Calvert. Mr. Booth said in Chicago that the defeats of New Left “peace” candidates in year’s primaries and Congressional elections “have given people a better sense of how much work is to be done” to win political power.

Third-Party Idea Mr. Booth said the idea setting up a third party or antiwar and New Loft platform deserved consideration.

He expressed hope that “in three months” a vast audience would rally behind Rev. Dr. Marlin' Luther King Jr., the civil rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, and Dr. Benjamin Spock, the pediatrician and antiwar leader, as candidates for President and Vice President. Dr. King has said he does not intend to run.

Mr. Booth, a 23-year-old Swarthmore College graduate, is a board member of the National Conference for New Politics. ("Those left liberals!" Mr. Calvert sneered when the group was mentioned to him.)

The conference was established last year to help New Left and antiwar forces win political Influence. Cochairmen are Julian Bond of the Georgia Legislature and Simon Casidy, a California Democrat. Dr. Spock was among the founders.

Another backer of Dr. King is Robert Scheer, the 31-year-old managing editor of Ramparts magazine. During a visit to New York he predicted broad popular support for the clergyman.

"I cannot think of any Negro minister attacking him,” Mr. Scheer said. “Stokely Carmichael [chairman of the S.N.C.C.] embraced him publicly. The extremists will have to go along.”

Mr. Scheer knows how to sound pretty extremist himself. In the Spring Mobilization rally In San Francisco he called President Johnson a “murderer” who was aiming at a “final solution” in Vietnam. The term “final solution” was used in official Nazi documents to describe the destruction of Jews ordered by Hitler.

The executive director of the Conference for New Politics, William F. Pepper, said in an interview at the group’s New York headquarters, at 250 West 57th Street, that "we aren’t a bunch of liberal do-gooders, we are revolutionary.” (“Liberal” is a dirty word in the New Left.)

He said the conference aimed at affiliating with the hundreds of antiwar committees and left-oriented “single-issue and multi-issue” groups that had sprung up throughout the country.

Mr. Pepper said he once was a campaign coordinator for Senator Robert F. Kennedy in Westchester County but that in his present activity he was not “fronting for Senator Kennedy.”

A Meeting With Kennedy Senator Kennedy has shown interest in the New Left and some time ago had a long talk with Mr. Lynd and Mr. Hayden at his home here. The meeting was arranged by Mr. Newfield. who is working on a biography of the Senator.

It was an aide of Dr. King, the Rev. James Bevel, who served as national director of the Spring Mobilization. The protest Idea was originally conceived by pacifists around the Rev. A. J. Muste, who died last Feb. 11.

While Dr. King jolted the civil rights movement by saying that it was vitally connected with the campaign against the war in Vietnam, leftists became prominent in the mobilization campaign. Some moderates withdrew.

The antiwar rally on April 15 In San Francisco's 62,000-seat Kezar Stadium, which was almost filled, was directed by a 21-year-old Trotskyite, Kipp Dawson. Outside the stadium, members of a Los Angeles-based pro-Peking group, wearing homemade uniforms with red-star insignia, sold copies of the “little red book" anthology of Chairman Mao Tse-tung's thoughts. The Maoists had denounced the April 15 demonstrations as a "revisionist Trotskyite betrayal." but did not pass up its possibilities for propaganda.

The W. E. B. Dubois Clubs, widely regarded as an unofficial youth arm of the Communist Party, U. S. A., played a subdued role In the antiwar drive or were missing altogether. Leftists of various shades wondered why.

An attempt to obtain an explanation at the Chicago national headquarters of the clubs was unsuccessful. The two-room office In the Great Lakes Building, 180 North Wacker Drive, was closed, and the telephone was disconnected.

A Theory About the Club Some DuBois Clubs have ceased their advertising of activities in local student publications. A Negro undergraduate had his own theory of why the clubs, which are named after a dead Negro Marxist scholar, seem dormant:

“The Communist Party desperately wants to look liberal and respectable. These DuBois cats, square as they are, are too swingin’ for the party bureaucrats.”

A former DuBois leader, Michael Myerson, is director of a newly formed Tri-Continental Information Center here that, according to a recent announcement. “has established contacts with anti-imperialist organizations and movements throughout the world.” Among the sponsors are Communist party members such as Dr. Aptheker, S.D.S. backers and Dr. Spock.

Mr. Myerson, a 26-year-old University of California graduate, said the members of the center were offering their services and support as Individuals and not as representatives of any organizations. The group has an office at 1133 Broadway and a two-man staff. It said It would issue a monthly bulletin and a series of pamphlets and would send fact-finding missions "to areas suffering from United States domination."

Students for a Democratic Society, too, is branching out internationally. A new Radical Education Project calls for creation of a network of "scholars, journalists, leftist youth leaders. government officials, guerrilla leaders, etc.," to gather international intelligence on insurgent movements and foreign policy developments.

The Young Socialist Alliance, an appendage of the Trotskyite Socialist Workers party, thoroughly committed its small but disciplined membership to the Spring Mobilization demonstration.

The Trotskyites’ advocacy of all-embracing. “nonexclusive” antiwar alliances is met with deep distrust by many New Left adherents.

‘Liars’ a Student Says "The Trotskyites are liars and just want to take over the entire left,” a Harvard University student said.

A visitor to the Spring Mobilization headquarters in San Francisco, a few days after the April 15 demonstrations, found the organizing committee's director there, the petite Miss Dawson, counting money contributions and arranging for the payment of bills.

It quickly developed during an interview that Miss Dawson's revolutionary idol is Che Guevara.

"The Cuban revolution is the most exciting thing that has happened In our time,” said the Young Socialist Alliance activist, who was not yet born when Leon Trotsky was murdered in Mexico in 1940.

Trotsky, one of the chief organizers of the Russian October Revolution of 1917, advocated world revolution and establishment of uncompromising “pure", Communism. He was forced into I exile by Stalin. Followers of Trotsky's doctrine of “permanent revolution” are influential in some Latin-American countries.

While the heirs of the old left thus identify with Che Guevara. his book "Guerrilla Warfare”—and not Mao’s little red book—is becoming part of the young radicals’ field kit.

[Due to a bad scan, article is incomplete for last few paragraphs.]

[wikimakemoney]

How your organization can become AI powered

30-second summary:

Companies can make many mistakes in launching AI projects, including not taking the time to understand the technology at a business level, and trying to get by with inadequate IT infrastructures.

To move your organization toward AI success, make sure you have a clear objective for the project, a good definition of success, and a way to measure whether you got there.

Have a plan to integrate AI into your organizational infrastructure, and build a knowledge scaffolding using an ontology.

Organizing information properly will allow for future growth of AI systems and will also help your employees right now. It all comes down to data management.

I have spent more than 25 years researching and implementing AI technologies — from the days of IBM’s “discovery server” which lead to “OmniFind” and then became part of their flagship AI brand Watson to various iterations of text analytics and machine learning applications to prototypes and deployed projects using conversational technologies.

During these cycles of new technology – all of which were marked by hype, missed expectations and eventual adoption — I have seen patterns of success and failure as the AI landscape has evolved. In The AI-Powered Enterprise, I seek to help businesses deliver AI’s promise of revolutionary change.

Achieving this goal means avoiding the most common mistakes I’ve seen companies make, including:

Lack of understanding of AI technology

Executives tend to think AI technology is beyond their ability to understand. The complex programming may be out of reach for many, but the basic functioning needs to be explainable and understandable in business terms.

Businesspeople can understand the principles, and vendors can explain their solutions in an understandable way. Effort is required on both sides.

Unrealistic expectations due to vendor and market hype

This is a big one. Every major technology change causes vendors, gurus, consultants and organizations to confuse what is possible with what is practical. SRI, the company that originally developed Siri as part of a DARPA project, created intelligent assistants 25 years ago.

Approximately $150 million was invested, and that research and development showed what was possible. These tools did not become practical until the last several years (and they still have a long way to go).

Underestimating the required investment

All too often, ROI is projected without a real understanding of what is needed to make things work and the costs of achieving functionality. Startups often try to do things that have not been possible before and are selling what I refer to as “aspirational functionality.”

They may believe they can deliver what they are selling, but this will not happen without a lot of customer investments and pain. “Moon shot” projects (big, ambitious and game changing) are the ones most likely to fail.

Miscommunication, misinterpretation and misinformation 

Consider a marketer trying to translate the work of an AI researcher or data scientist into something that the marketplace (and their salespeople) understand. Marketing’s understanding will be an approximation that is then interpreted by the salesperson.

In each translation of the message, the high points are emphasized and the challenges minimized. There is bound to be misinterpretation and miscommunication and in some cases misinformation.

Unfortunately, this has led to millions of dollars in wasted funding and career limiting mistakes for the executives who took those risks.

Immature supporting processes

In many cases, AI technology can be equated to a high-performance super car. However, the necessary supporting processes are like rutted dirt roads, not smooth flat racetrack where the car will perform to its specifications.

Personalized experiences are an example of this.  Some marketers segment customers but don’t know how to differentiate the experiences across those segments. The tools and the architecture are ready, but the supporting messaging and content processes are not.

Disconnected technologies

Organizations are experimenting with lots of tools, and some functions – like marketing – have been evolving very rapidly with easy-to-deploy cloud-based tools.

In many situations, this has led to more fragmentation of data, processes and the experience. Legacy systems are difficult to upgrade or replace, and adding AI tools on top of an outdated infrastructure can make things worse.

Poor data quality

It’s all about the data. In fact, the data is more important than the algorithm.

Some projects work well in a proof of concept (PoC) but only because the data was hand selected, integrated, cleansed, enriched and/or curated for the AI. In a production environment, companies don’t have the same conditions or luxury.

What business leaders need to know about using AI to move their organizations forward?

So, how can companies avoid these mistakes?  It’s really back to the basics. Executives need to be very clear about their objectives and understand the processes that they want to improve.

AI for AI’s sake or to check a box to say “yes, we have an AI program,” is an exercise in futility – and a drain on resources.

Governance is also key – from deciding on strategic priorities to assigning accountabilities, mobilizing and allocating funding, monitoring preconditions (such as data quality) and linking to process and outcome metrics, guiding working agendas, and evangelizing, educating and socializing to catalyze needed changes in work habits and culture.

AI cannot replace entire functions or jobs. Rather, it enhances specific processes that need to be narrowly defined and well understood. You can’t automate a mess, and you can’t use AI to fix a process that your people don’t understand.

It is also critical important to know what success looks like and to measure how well things are working today (as a baseline) and then measure after deploying an AI solution.

If you cannot measure it, how will you know it’s working? Be clear about the objective, the process and the success measures.Otherwise getting support and funding will be difficult.

Finally, executives need to understand dependencies – data, technology, process, people – and be clear on what is needed in each domain.

AI has to be integrated into the organizational infrastructure. This means everything from the technology stack to cultural readiness, decision making and governance.

Who is going to own the capability? What are the upstream and downstream impacts – both short term and longer term as capabilities evolve? How will resources be allocated? How will course corrections be made?

Why the key to successful implementation of AI comes down to data management?

AI algorithms (programs) run on data. One of the reasons why AI has become more practical in recent years is that so much data is available to “train” the algorithms.

Training data comes in different forms and structures. For example, training an AI that is looking for fraudulent transactions, requires providing multiple examples of valid transactions along with examples of fraudulent ones.

Alternatively, for a “cognitive” assistant (a really smart bot or virtual assistant), the training takes the form of the actual knowledge needed to answer questions that will be posed to the assistant.

In The AI Powered Enterprise, I describe a project for insurance company Allstate, for which thousands of pieces of information had to be broken into pieces and ingested (imported) into the system as answers to questions.

In other words, AI needs to learn about your products, services, solutions – the knowledge architecture that defines your organization’s value in the marketplace.

This is why effective bots are difficult and costly to build.  Indeed, projects like the insurance example above can cost upwards of $1mm+, but they provide enormous return on investment.

Imagine that you are trying to personalize an experience for your customers.  The key is identifying their “digital body language” when they come to your site.

That is data – the data exhaust thrown off by sometimes dozens of applications that support their experience.  Without those data signals, the AI has nothing to go by.

In many organizations, data is disconnected, inconsistent, and in many cases of poor quality.   You cannot be successful with AI until you have your data house in order.

Which companies are getting AI right, and what we can learn from them? 

Born digital companies – like the big tech vendors – are obviously amassing enormous wealth by doing it right.

Financial services firms have been building maturity in analytics by using AI programs as an extension of advanced and predictive analytics. Some retailers are capitalizing on their knowledge of their customer needs and the data that is being harvested throughout their journeys.

Other organizations can learn from these companies by investing in a cloud-based, modern, well- integrated infrastructure. Because technologies have advanced so much in the past several years, there are actually some advantages to being a follower now.

New approaches to harmonizing, cleansing, and managing data have been made more practical by using graph data and knowledge graphs.

These approaches allow the linking of related things throughout the organization. Think of Facebook’s “friend of a friend.” Finding common elements allows people to navigate their friend networks by interests, school, employers, associations, etc.

These structures, combined with ontologies (the catalog of data, concepts, products, solutions, processes, and everything else important to the business) become the knowledge scaffolding of the enterprise.

They become the foundation for all AI tools as well as conventional tools and technologies.  Indeed, the critical role of these structures and ontologies is the subject of The AI Powered Enterprise.

How AI can help employees being crushed by “information overload”?

We can think of the flood of data employees face as “information overload,” but it is really “filter failure.” Humans have worried about information overload since the invention of the printing press.

The pace of information growth is unimaginable, but people are always filtering out what they don’t need and focusing on what they do need.

This is not done by accident.  Libraries were created to manage information in context and to find what humans need to learn, to create, and to solve problems.

That requires effort – the energy needed to categorize and organize. AI can help with this, but first it needs to be trained in what is important — the products, services, solutions, processes and more.

By properly organizing information needed for a high-value process (for example customer support), the business can make it easy for employees to get what they need without being overloaded. That was what the Allstate virtual assistant referenced above accomplished – but there is no free lunch.

Time, money, resources and energy needed to be invested to make the crucial underwriting and policy information accessible and findable. AI helped, but humans needed to teach the AI about the insurance business.

The same elements that are needed to train humans are needed to train AI. Therefore, the investments that are made now for people can be fully leveraged for AI. I discuss how to do this in great depth in The AI Powered Enterprise.

Seth Earley is the CEO of Earley Information Science and the author of the new book The AI-Powered Enterprise: Harness the Power of Ontologies to Make Your Business Smarter, Faster, and More Profitable.

The post How your organization can become AI powered appeared first on ClickZ.

source http://wikimakemoney.com/2020/07/28/how-your-organization-can-become-ai-powered/

[ladystylestores]

Russia Denies Paying Bounties, but Some Say the U.S. Had It Coming

Ukrainian soldiers dig trenches in Stanytsia Luhanska, eastern Ukraine, on Oct. 18, 2019. (Brendan Hoffman/The New York Times)

MOSCOW — Three years into a grinding war in eastern Ukraine, the Trump administration, in a sharp break with Obama-era policy, proposed providing the Ukrainian army with potent American weapons, Javelin anti-tank missiles, to aid its struggle with Russian-backed separatists.

President Vladimir Putin of Russia responded with an ominous warning, saying weapons in the separatist regions could easily be sent “to other zones of conflict” — which many took to mean Afghanistan.

Russia’s grievances against what it sees as American bullying and expansion into its own zones of influence have been stacking up for decades, starting with the CIA’s role in arming mujahedeen fighters who, after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, delivered a fatal blow not only to the invading Red Army but the entire Soviet Union.

A deep well of bitterness created by past and current conflicts in Afghanistan, Ukraine and more recently Syria, where U.S. forces killed scores of Russian mercenaries in 2018, help explain why Russia, according to U.S. intelligence officials, has become so closely entangled with the Taliban. In Ukraine, the Trump administration did send Javelins but with the stipulation that they not be used in the war.

Russian officials and commentators reacted with fury to a report last week in The New York Times that U.S. intelligence officials had concluded that Russia’s military intelligence agency had gone so far as to pay bounties to the Taliban and criminal elements linked to it to kill U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.

Intercepted electronic data showed large financial transfers from Russia’s military intelligence agency, known as the GRU, to a Taliban-linked account, according to U.S. officials. Officials also identified an Afghan contractor as a key middleman between the GRU and militants linked to the Taliban who carried out the attacks.

Russian officials have scoffed at the idea they would hire killers from a radical Islamist group that is banned in Russia as a “terrorist” outfit and that shares many views of the Afghan fighters who killed so many Red Army soldiers, and those of Islamic militants who caused Moscow so much pain in Chechnya during two wars there.

Story continues

In remarks to a state news agency Monday, Zamir Kabulov, Putin’s special envoy for Afghanistan and a former ambassador in Kabul, dismissed the Taliban bounties report as “outright lies” generated by “forces in the United States who don’t want to leave Afghanistan and want to justify their own failures.”

Amid a torrent of outraged denials, however, there have been pointed reminders that, in Russia’s view, the U.S., because of its overreach overseas, deserves to taste some of its own medicine.

Speaking during a talk show on state television dominated by conspiracy theories about plots by President Donald Trump’s Democratic rivals, Alexei Zhuravlyov, a member of the Russian parliament, reminded viewers that as far as Russia was concerned, the U.S. has long had it coming.

Recalling Operation Cyclone, the CIA’s secret program to arm Moscow’s enemies in Afghanistan during the 1980s, Zhuravlyov said the U.S. had spent billions of dollars on weapons that “killed thousands and thousands” of Russians. “This is a medical fact.”

While dismissing reports of Russian bounties for American scalps as “fake news,” he said, “Let’s suppose we paid,” the Taliban, and then asked how many Americans had perhaps been killed as a result. “At most 22,” he responded.

There is no evidence to date that Putin signed off on any program to kill U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, and even independent experts say they strongly doubt he would have done so.

Yet, Russia under Putin has for years throbbed with real and imagined pain from hurt inflicted by the U.S., notably the collapse of the Soviet Union, and a desire to make it pay.

Andrei Serenko, an expert at the Center for the Study of Contemporary Afghanistan in Moscow, said Russia has no real desire to see the U.S. leave Afghanistan and revels in America’s agonies from an endless conflict he described as a “sore blister for the United States.”

All the same, he said, Russia has been preparing for an eventual pullout by cultivating ties to the Taliban as well as to various Afghan warlords. It has done this with money and other inducements in the hope of shaping future Afghan events and securing a useful instrument to poke Washington.

The Taliban, like many other Afghan groups, he added, has a long record of running protection rackets and taking cash from foreigners, including Russians, Americans and Chinese. “This is what they do,” he said. “They are Afghanistan’s most successful business.”

Russia, he said, “decided that if we can create lots of problems for Americans in Afghanistan, they will create fewer problems for us in Ukraine and Syria.”

Moscow has been reaching out to the Taliban for years, starting in 1995 when Kabulov traveled to Kandahar, a Taliban stronghold in the south, to negotiate the release of Russian pilots who had been taken hostage.

The pilots eventually got away with their aircraft in what was described at the time as a daring escape. But what really happened is unclear. One thing that seems certain, however, is that this first Russian negotiation with the Taliban revolved around money.

“Everything was based on money,” Vasily Kravtsov, a former KGB officer during the Soviet war and until 2018 a Russian diplomat in Kabul, recalled of the hostage talks.

Kravtsov denied Russia had since paid the Taliban bounties for the deaths of coalition soldiers, even as he recalled that Soviet soldiers had been killed in large numbers by American arms supplied to the mujahedeen. He said he himself had been wounded twice by weapons “bought with American funds.”

Igor Yerin, who fought in Afghanistan as a young Red Army conscript in the 1980s, said he never saw any Americans on the battlefield but “they were everywhere because of their Stingers.”

Stingers were anti-aircraft missiles provided to mujahedeen fighters by the U.S. as part of a covert CIA program. They enabled the mujahedeen to shoot down hundreds of Soviet planes and helicopters, turning the tide in the decadelong war.

Now the curator of a small museum in Moscow commemorating the inglorious Afghan war, Yerin showed off a display of land mines and other weapons sent to kill Russians as part of the CIA program.

Putin has for years played on this and other sources of Russian pain.

Soon after coming to power two decades ago, he pledged support for President George W. Bush in his “with or against us” war on terrorism in 2001 and cooperated with America’s drive to oust the Taliban. But he quickly soured on the idea that Washington could be a reliable partner and began blaming it for most of the world’s problems.

Bristling with wounded pride, Putin in a fiery speech in Munich in 2007 denounced what he said was a “world of one master, one sovereign” and complained that the “United States has overstepped its national borders, in every area.”

He has been settling scores ever since, often with help from the GRU, which even before Putin took power had won its spurs putting the U.S. in its place. Since he took office, the military intelligence agency has been accused of involvement in widespread mischief-making, from a bungled 2016 coup attempt in Montenegro aimed at preventing the Balkan nation’s entry into NATO, to meddling the same year in the U.S. presidential election.

In a rare recent interview, the former head of the GRU, Valentin Korabelnikov, told state television how his officers had in 1999 organized a frantic dash by Russian troops and armor to Kosovo to occupy the airport in the capital, Pristina — just hours before the arrival of NATO forces. The stunt, he said, was “about the prestige of our state” and showing that Russia could not be ignored.

Speaking in his former office at the headquarters of the GRU in Moscow, Korabelnikov said that his agency had organized many other secret operations but that those could not be revealed.

“The vast majority of operations carried out both by us and our brothers,” he said, referring to Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service and the Federal Security Service, known as the FSB and headed in the late 1990s by Putin, “are completely closed, and only the small tip of the iceberg sometimes appears.”

Mark Galeotti, an expert on Russia’s security apparatus who wrote a doctorate on Moscow’s disastrous Afghan war, said “some old war horses” in the GRU could have hatched a scheme to kill Americans as payback for Russians killed with U.S. weapons in Afghanistan. But he said he doubted that such a plan would have been approved by the Russian leadership or executed without approval as a “maverick operation.”

Even Yerin, the former conscript who lost friends in Afghanistan, recalled that during his tour there, spent mostly near the northern city of Kunduz, he never believed political commissars in his unit who explained the 1979 Soviet invasion was necessary to keep the U.S. from moving into Russia’s backyard.

“Today, I believe them,” said Yerin. “Afghanistan is our next-door neighbor,” he said, stabbing with his finger the southern border of the former Soviet Union on a big wall map, “What happens here is our business, not the Americans’.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

© 2020 The New York Times Company

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[rafi1228]

Learn the latest Kubernetes features (1.16) and plugins while practicing DevOps workflows, from a container expert

What you’ll learn

Learn Kubernetes and cluster tools from an award-winning Docker Captain!

Lead your team into the future with the latest Kubernetes & container skills!

Know the right ways to use Kubernetes for proper DevOps workflows

Understand production K8s topics like rolling updates, healthchecks, and failure recovery

Know when to use different types of app configuration like args, envs, and ConfigMaps

Make Kubernetes YAML manifests and deploy using infrastructure-as-code methods

Requirements

Know Docker 101: the Docker basics like building and shipping images, and running containers

Understand terminal or command prompt basics

Linux basics like shells, SSH, and package managers

Know the basics of creating a server in the cloud (on any provider)

Understand the basics of web and database servers (how they typically communicate, IP’s, ports, etc.)

Have a GitHub and Docker Hub account

Description

Taught by an award-winning Docker Captain and Kubernetes expert, this Course is the result of a collaboration between Bret Fisher, creator of the #1 Docker & Kubernetes course on Udemy, and Jérôme Petazzoni who is a full-time Kubernetes instructor, as well as one of the original Docker Inc DevOps Engineers! We designed the course to take your Kubernetes skills from first-time user to using K8s in production.

Updates are a thing! You can count on it. Kubernetes is a huge topic and constantly evolving. As a result, this course will grow and evolve with it.

Just starting out with Kubernetes? Perfect. This course starts out assuming you’re new to container orchestration.

And, if you’re using Kubernetes now and need to learn the latest features, I’m here for you! See my topics around dry runs, diffs, logging, rolling upgrades, startup healthchecks, zombie reaping, and more.

[five stars] “Because Bret knows, lives, breaths and loves his technology stack. The passion and belief always comes through in all of his courses which is why I will always recommend his work.”  — Steven Hunt, Udemy Student

Already a Docker Mastery student and want to know what’s different between the two courses? This course assumes you know Docker and dives deeper into Kubernetes and the community of tools around it. Unlike Docker Mastery, which starts with container 101 and takes you through a lot of tools like local development setups, docker-compose, registry, Docker Hub, Swarm basics, Kubernetes basics, and general Docker best practices… this course starts with Kubernetes 101 and has you learning and practicing each feature and workflow you’ll need for running your own Kubernetes clusters, and like all my courses, it focuses on how to use those features with a DevOps mindset and workflow.

BONUS: This course comes with Slack Chat and YouTube Live Q&As with me!

“…Bret is amazing. You can tell he knows exactly what he is talking about and enjoys helping others. I have never seen someone so involved with his user base as Bret. …I would seriously buy any course the Bret puts out because I have no doubts that it will be excellent.”  –– David Olson, Udemy Course Student

Why should you learn from me? Why trust me to teach you the best ways to use Kubernetes?   (Hi, I’m Bret, please allow me to talk about myself for a sec):

I’m A Practitioner. Welcome to the real world: I’ve got 20 years of sysadmin and developer experience, over 30 certifications, and have been exclusively focused on DevOps and the container ecosystem for my consulting clients and my own companies since Docker’s early days. Learn from someone who’s helped run thousands of containers across dozens of projects and organizations.

I’m An Educator. Learn from someone who knows how to make a syllabus: I want to help you. People say I’m good at it. For the last few years, I’ve trained thousands of people on using Docker & Kubernetes in workshops, conferences, and meetups. See me teach at events like DockerCon, O’Reilly Velocity, GOTO Conf, and Linux Open Source Summit.

I Lead Communities. Also, I’m a Docker Captain, meaning that Docker Inc. thinks I know a thing or two about containers and that I do well in sharing it with others. In the real-world: I help run two local meetups in our fabulous tech community in Norfolk/Virginia Beach USA. I help online: usually in Slack and Twitter, where I learn from and help others.

“This guy is out of this world. I love his patience and carefulness he puts in all of his lessons.” — Evan Baird, Udemy Student

Giving Back: a portion of my profit on this course will be donated to supporting open source and protecting our freedoms online! This course is only made possible by the amazing people creating open source. I’m standing on the shoulders of (open source) giants! Donations will be split between my favorite charities like Electronic Frontier Foundation and Free Software Foundation. Look them up. They’re awesome!

This is a living course and will be updated as Kubernetes features change.

This course is designed to be fast at getting you started but also to get you deep into the “why” of things. Simply the fastest and best way to learn the latest container skills. Look at the scope of topics in the Session and see the breadth of skills you will learn.

Also included is a private Slack Chat group with 21,000+ students for getting help with this course and continuing your Docker and DevOps learning with help from myself and other students.

“I am really loving your approach to training so far. Concepts are really simplified and easy to understand. Thank you.”  — Yemisi Omoijo, Udemy Student

Some of the many cool things you’ll do in this course:

Deploy a microservice app using both CLI and YAML

Investigate running apps using CLI, logs, and events

Test out different local Kubernetes installs like Docker Desktop, microK8s, and minikube

Use Stern to view multiple container logs at once

Try different load balancer types with Kubernetes Services

Troubleshoot container and network performance

Create custom labels for controlling load balancer connections

Use the new Server Dry Run to test changes with the API

Recover from a failed update, and rollback updates to previous versions

Test different healthcheck probe types

Use various app config options with built-in Kubernetes features

Quickly patch YAML with a single command

Split up and deploy YAML from git repos using DevOps practices

Deploy the Kubernetes Dashboard web GUI securely

And so much more…

  After taking this course, you’ll be able to:

Know when to use Kubernetes for solving real-world problems

Step through the proper decisions to make when creating healthchecks

Understand how to test healthchecks to ensure they don’t create problems

Know when to use different types of app configuration like args, envs, ConfigMaps, and more

Design a ConfigMap with the Downward API for more flexible deployments

Make Kubernetes YAML manifests and deploy using infrastructure-as-code DevOps methods

Protect your keys, TLS certificates, and passwords with encrypted secrets

Lead your team into the future with the latest Kubernetes container skills!

  Extra things that come with this course:

Access to the course Slack team, for getting help/advice from me and other students.

Bonus videos I put elsewhere like YouTube, linked to from this course’s resources.

Live Q&A with me on YouTube.

Tons of reference links to supplement this content.

Updates to content as Kubernetes changes the features on these topics.

Who this course is for:

Beginner Kubernetes students that want to learn the latest features and patterns for container orchestration

Sysadmins, developers, and operators that know some Docker, and want to start using multi-server orchestration

Anyone who makes, deploys, or operates software on servers, that already knows container basics

Created by Bret Fisher, Docker Captain Program Last updated 5/2020 English English

Size: 8.67 GB

   Download Now

https://ift.tt/2t3ZARZ.

The post Kubernetes Mastery: Hands-On Lessons From A Docker Captain appeared first on Free Course Lab.

[classsicinformatics-blog]

Startup Tips: Best Tech Stack For Powering Your MVP

The most crucial thing you should consider while processing a top-notch software product is the heap of technologies you are going to work with. Isn’t it? The high-end technologies act as a catalyst in the development of the niche product and the services it provides as an outcome to its target audience.

If we talk about the technically sound people, they don’t find hurdles in cracking the technologies required for developing software, but when it comes to non-tech humans the situation is a bitter one.

The most vital questions often put up by the non-techies in concern to tech stack are:

What are the programming language should we proceed with? Whether to go for Python or pick Java as the programming language?

What is most appropriate when going for the web framework: Node.js or Flask?

What database to opt for the reliable and secure storage of mass databases: MySQL or MongoDB?

At what platform the application should be hosted? What choice should be made between Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud?

Choosing the appropriate tech stack is quite a challenging task for both techies and non-techies in every aspect. Your business needs technology stacks that deliver you high-end services and at the same time boosts your ROI and enhances growth.

In a web development company, the right tech stack acts as a key to your software success.

Are you having an idea for an app in your freaking mind right now? But, you don’t know what the next step should be?

Be patient. We are there for you to provide a better understanding of the tech development stack for your web application.

So, without wasting must time, let’s get started with the basics first:

What is Tech Stack?

A tech stack is a perfect blend of software products and programming languages that are utilized to develop a web or mobile application. It is a pool of tools and frameworks used in software development.

Putting straight, a technology stack is a mix of hardware and software tools along with unique frameworks to deliver and maintain an efficacious app or product. Applications have two software components: client-side and server-side, commonly known as front-end and back-end.

Front-end:

Front end or client-side technologies permit users to see and interact with the program directly with no intervention. Here, the main aim is to deliver convenience to the user while accessing the user interface, and clear internal structures. It normalizes complex systems into discrete ones to make user interactions simpler.

Back-end:

The latter is all about the internal working of an application utilizing all tools and technologies. The subsystems developed to perform logic, interact with databases, coordinate with web services, and provide product development services to the end-users.

The back-end or server-side programming is performed thoroughly by the developers specialized in various technologies, delivering a top-notch software product.

So, let’s suppose if you got an idea for developing a new product and you decide to build an MVP (Minimum viable product).

What next you are looking for?

You start thinking of the tools, technologies, frameworks, and the best tech stack to work on.

You will surely find the answer to these questions in the below article.

The definition of an MVP

Did you ever hear about the fact that nearly 70% of startups and businesses fail?

Can you believe it?  It’s true.

There are certain reasons behind this from poor marketing to a product without a business model and many more.

MVP or Minimum viable Product

MVP or minimum viable product is a Lean Startup Methodology based on build, measure and learn the principle. According to this principle, a minimum viable product has been developed to be launched in the market to measure the customer’s response and behaviour.

The customer's feedback is then used to develop the final product which ultimately leads to less chance of failures. This idea also saves the huge costs and time incurred in the actual web development.

After learning the market, you have 2 options i.e. pivot and persevere. If your key assumptions receive positive feedback from the market, then you should continue with your idea to make the product even better. On the other hand, if you receive negative feedback from your customers, then you should pivot and modify your idea or target audience.

I think you have understood the concept clearly. If not, let’s see a case study that will help you to clear your mind.

You must have heard about “The Instagram”….yes, a social media platform which is quite popular nowadays.

Are you interested in knowing the real idea implemented behind this app and by whom?

Let’s see.

The Instagram app was originated in San Francisco by the two masterminds Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger.

Kevin created a check-in-app called Burbn, which permits users to check-in where they are currently on their mobile web app.

Kevin analyzed that among all the features of the app, people are only loving the photo element in the app. Kevin knew that this app will not be going to succeed soon. So both the founders decided to pivot their product and focus solely on communication via images.

They remove all the features and focus primarily on the photos, commenting and liking element in the app. The app was renamed as Instagram which is quite popular among youth these days.

So, to deliver the best MVP development services to the customers, the startups should first build up a minimum viable product with the right tech stack and less cost.

Tech stack that empowers your MVP

I have worked with many startups and witnessed their ups and downs in the market for over a decade. Helping startups to develop their MVPs with the right tech stack is quite a challenging task. Choosing the relevant programming language and frameworks for an MVP brings up their advantages & disadvantages.

Here, it comes the right tech stack for your MVP:

Ruby on Rails

When it comes to technology startups, Ruby on Rails frameworks is quite popular. It empowers millions of startup applications, and this technology is perfectly suited for developing MVPs. The Ruby developers can utilize tons of open-source gems to speed up development.

Programming language Characteristics: Ruby is a general-purpose programming language that can build all kinds of applications and is known for its object-oriented nature. The language has a developer-friendly syntax that simplifies coding and significantly speeds the development process.

Domain: The Ruby language based on Ruby on Rails framework enables Ruby developers to deliver secure and functional web applications faster. Some successful software platforms built on Ruby on Rails are Airbnb, Shopify, and GitHub.

For Startups: Ruby gems are not only compatible with the Ruby on Rails but also with other Ruby Frameworks. You can still use the same gems to build your MVP despite having different Ruby Frameworks.

Bottom line: If planning to develop a functional and secure web application in a very short period, then surely Ruby on Rails is the right choice.

Python / Django

It’s time to take a brief look at the Python programming language and its Django framework.

Programming language Characteristics:  Python is an interpreted language with dynamic typing just like Ruby. It emphasizes code readability. Python can be used to implement both small and large-scale applications. When it comes to run time performance, it performs a bit slow, but this issue doesn’t make any difference for startup applications.

Domain: Python is the best known general-purpose programming language that built applications in the sphere of machine learning and artificial intelligence.  The Python programming language acts as a dominant tool for implementing machine learning algorithms, Chatbots, image recognition software and many more. The blend of Python and its Django framework contribute a lot in the successful applications such as the popular social network platform Instagram and the data repository Bitbucket.

For Startups:  According to the latest statistics by GitHub, Python ranks third by the number of repositories. Django has more than 1,500 contributors on GitHub.  Django follows the model-view-template(MVT) architectural pattern to encourage the rapid development of secure and scalable web applications. For building MVPs, startups have great choices available.

Bottom Line: With Django, you can use the complete functionality and power of the Python programming language for your MVP. If your application is based out of machine learning algorithms, then Django and Python is the best choice.

PHP / Laravel

PHP/Laravel is one of the best programming languages that help develop an MVP most efficiently. MVP can be implemented using PHP and its multiple frameworks.

Programming language Characteristics:   PHP is a well known interpreted and dynamically typed general-purpose programming language that’s perfectly suited for web development applications and can be embedded in HTML.

Domain: PHP is a popular programming language that built sound websites on powerful content management systems such as WordPress and Joomla. PHP is considered a great choice for developing versatile web applications, from small landing pages to online stores and social media platforms like Facebook.

Laravel is an open-source PHP framework built using components of Symphony 2. It was designed to extend and explore the functionalities of existing PHP frameworks and enhance rapid application development.

For Startups: The framework enriched with tools, packages to help programmers build fully operational web applications, microservices, and APIs. Many open-source PHP libraries that help developers to speed their development process.

Bottom Line: The PHP proves to be the most suitable technology for your project if you want to eliminate the problem of hiring developers. The powerful Laravel Framework smoothly builds a fully functional web application.

Node.js / Meteor

Node.js is one of the powerful frameworks that implement JavaScript and built real-time web applications.

Programming language Characteristics: Node.js is based on Google’s V8 JavaScript engine that allows programmers to use JavaScript both on the client-side and server-side. The applications built with Node.js ensure high-performance and are scalable.

Domain:  Node.js is a great choice for building real-time web applications such as messaging apps, online games, live chats, etc. Meteor is an open-source full-stack framework tailoring functionalities like rapid prototyping. Startups like Rocket Chat and Tap To Speak choose Meteor to build high-performance applications.

For Startups: The framework provides programmers with out-of-the-box solutions available through the Node.js package. Minimize the amount to code developers by using a rich JavaScript stack. Here, the developers are permitted to build cross-platform applications.

Bottom Line: If you are planning to build a real-time messaging or streaming web application, Node.js is the best choice to opt for. It enables you to write cross-platform code with high speed.

Read also: Top 10 JavaScript frameworks in 2020 for front-end development

The entire above are just the splash of the technologies used to develop applications. There is a pool of the programming languages and frameworks available; you can select any of them to fulfil the requirements of your project. As you can see MVP needs just basic functionality and the right development process to turn it into a market-ready web application in no time.

Wrapping Up

In the end, all I can say that all the programming languages and frameworks have their own strong and weak points. It all our capability to choose the right set of technology that can build your startup business a profitable one. Be mindful of what tools and technologies, you require to make the product that satisfies customer needs.

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Compass Datacenters’ Sharif Fotouh Sits Down with datacenterHawk to Talk All Things Edge

In one of the best conversations about the edge, David Liggitt and Sharif Fotouh discuss the past, present, and future of the edge, from repurposed cell-tower "fiber huts" to never-before-seen data patterns. Watch the full video below or read the entire transcript. Enjoy!

  David: I'm David Liggitt with datacenterHawk. And I'm here with Sharif Fotouh. He is managing director at EdgePoint at Compass Data Centers. And we were talking about the edge, it's one of my favorite discussions ever. You gotta watch it.

I'm David Liggitt with datacenterHawk. And I'm here with Sharif Fotouh. Sharif, good morning.

Sharif: Good morning.

David: Thanks for joining us here on Hawk Talk number 33. So, really excited about that. And excited to get your feedback on the data center industry. Obviously, you have a very interesting focus around the edge and that type of, I would say, like, vertical in the way companies are using that or will use that in the future. So, excited to get your feedback.

Sharif: Oh, well, thanks for having me. And I wanna say before we get started, congratulations on your five-year anniversary.

David: Thank you. Thank you.

Sharif: It's a heck of a milestone.

David: Thank you.

Sharif: And it's been cool to see the story of datacenterHawk develop over the years.

David: Yeah, you bet. Well, I appreciate that. You know, let's talk about, you have a really interesting background as far as some of the things that you were doing before EdgePoint and before being acquired by Compass. And so, talk about that, those maybe...your career path and how that really shaped...we're talking about it a little earlier, but how that shaped the ability for you to go out and do what you're doing today. I'd love to hear more about that.

Sharif: Great question. My career path is kind of if you imagine one of those Calvin and Hobbes comics with the, like, squiggly line, definitely not the most efficient route. But I think that variability kind of lended some interesting colors. So, I've been in the industry for about 15 years now. I started working for a regional data center operator out of Austin, Texas. And I had a very interesting collection of roles there throughout the years, I was there six years. Part of it was operating, you know, retail colocation facilities. But part of it was also deploying for various web properties that was under the same family of companies in data centers all over the globe. And so, throughout those five, six years, I kind of never specialized in any one aspect, but rather, had, you know, familiarity and experience with, you know, everything up the network and system stack, all the way down to power whips and space planning.

David: So, you got a really wide variety of kind of a knowledge base of the industry?

Sharif: Yup. Jack of all trades, master of none, right? In 2013, I started with Google on the Google Fiber project. And back then, it was, you know, very kinda early stage, a pretty small team. They had just had Kansas as their city. And it was publicly kind of known, it was just a trial or, you know, a test, right?

David: Yeah. So, they were putting their Google Fiber product in that city?

Sharif: Yup.

David: Got it. Yup.

Sharif: And so, I moved out to California to the Bay Area. And over the next five years at Google, I built and led the facilities and network deployment program for Google Fiber nationally.

David: Wow. What was that like?

Sharif: Actually, it was quite exciting. But at times, really challenging. Everything from, you know, mundane labeling standards to, you know, building templated footprints for various, you know, kind of peering functions, and that kind of thing, so you could kind of cookie-cutter it across the country. But it was really exciting, the mission was exciting, innovating in a space that's, you know, traditionally pretty slow, telecom. And the public was, you know, really energized by the product. And so, you know, that kinda fed into the excitement.

So, that program at Google Fiber encompassed kind of a wide spectrum of facilities, right? So, everything from, you know, megawatt deployments within Google's hyperscale facilities for kind of our back-end services, regional pops all over the country to effectively build your kinda national backbone network, you know, for acquiring other networks and peering. And then most pertinent to what I'm doing today, hundreds of these small prefabricated telecom shelters that were dubbed by the press fiber huts. And that name stuck.

And so what was really interesting about that fiber hut story is when I started, we had a very rough design that was effectively, you know, 10 to 15-kilowatt footprint, you know, barely n+1 with a lot of single points of failure, it was a stretched cell tower shelter, right? They called the guys that are making shelters for cell towers sites, and they said, "Oh, yeah, we can build you a slightly bigger one and, you know, upgrade some components." And then over the years, right, outages, failures, requirements for increased density, variability and footprint, we went from just kind of the typical PON gear, which is Passive Optical Network gear, went from just PON gear to including transport systems, including, you know, servers, and getting more advanced. We went through multiple iterations of that design on my team. And so, kind of what started as 10 or 15 kilowatts, you know, the last design we produced over there was over 50 kilowatts. And solidly n+1, if not 2n in some places.

David: Yeah, interesting. You know, you bring up the point about the iteration of the product. And, you know, it's one of the things we were talking before just about when I started in the space back in, like, '07, and just watching how, you know, the physical larger data center facility has been iterated over the last, you know, I don't know, 5, 10 years. I was...just got back from Northern Virginia, and one of the things we were talking about is just the difference in design, you know, and how different obviously it is today than it was 5 or 10 years ago. And really, I think when that iteration begins and, you know, it's really the product positioning itself for scalability down the road. And so you basically finished your time at Google. And then tell us about starting EdgePoint, and that process, and what was your mindset behind really wanting to get out there and go do that?

Sharif: Yeah. No, that's a great question. And so, let's see. Late 2016, the Google Fiber project, you know, effectively went on pause, right? There was a change in strategy. And the organization kind of halted the expansion plans. And I had this kinda moment of wondering, okay, like, you know, we went from racing down the highway to, you know, stopping, like, what do I do next, right? And what was really interesting, and this is kind of pre a lot of the discussions and conversations that are centered around the edge space now, you know, there was barely a of couple articles and players in that space at the time. And it's really, the initial premise was as somebody that was sourcing colocation all over the country, in tier-two markets, because Google Fiber was specifically targeting tier-two markets, right? I was surprised and shocked by how many markets were underserved from a colocation perspective.

David: Interesting. On, the secondary...in the secondary markets.

Sharif: In the secondary markets. And look, since that time, a lot of those markets have been solved by players in that space your EdgeConneXs and TierPoints. But what really surprised me was a study we were doing for a specific city. I think it was Minneapolis at the time. And we were going to have to pay an exorbitant amount to a colo provider there to add a second generator. They had one generator for the whole facility. We were going to buy a second generator for the whole facility. So, I could take my 150 kW footprint inside, right? We didn't have, like, a huge footprint requirement, but we needed it to be...

David: Yeah. The redundancy, yeah.

Sharif: Redundancy, right?

David: Yeah.

Sharif: And I remember walking out of that conference call. My VP was with me. And I turned to him and I said, "You know, it'd just be cheaper to put a couple of our huts and, like, it would..."

David: Robust, yeah.

Sharif: "...it would be more robust." And that was months before we went on pause. But that thought kept gestating in my mind. And so, when Google Fiber went on pause, I kind of locked into that and thought, well, hey, I'm uniquely positioned with this experience in producing hundreds of these shelters, deploying them all over the country, right, all the specific jurisdictional concerns and, you know, going to seismic regions or regions with snow load, you know, very humid and hot regions. And so, you know, I thought that ecosystem I've really tapped into and understood. And there is an option there to support areas where the capacity, the colocation capacity or facility capacity, is in an ideal location. And that's kind of what turned into edge.

David: Sure. Interesting. So, for those that are watching that don't have a good grasp on what edge is, you know, and you're in it every day, and granular with the thought process, and the definitions, and things like that. But do your best to describe, you know, and I think you've kind of done that through your conversation with what you did at Google. But do your best to describe, you know, what the edge is and why you believe that there's such a big opportunity, you know, in the future with this type of data center product?

Sharif: Got it. What the edge is?

David: Just a question we should all laugh about. Yes.

Sharif: Yeah. It's, like, religion, politics, and the edge, let's not talk about those three things, right? No. I mean, I like to keep things pretty simple.

David: Let's go.

Sharif: So, on the simplest level, distributing infrastructure is not a new trend, right? When I started my career, you know, advanced organizations would take a footprint domestically so to say, you know, in Ashburn, Virginia, and, you know, maybe West Coast like Los Angeles, and maybe Chicago, right? And that was effectively the coverage you needed for those applications. Over time, we've seen, you know, a boom of secondary markets or other NFL cities that perhaps aren't, you know, specifically acquiring subsea cables. But, you know, you look at your Atlantas and everything else, they've just boomed, right? That was the march towards the edge, right? And that same trend is continuing, right?

And so, what was secondary markets, we're now looking at tier three markets, we're looking at, you know, big metropolises like Dallas for example, if all your data centers are located in the center of Dallas or in the outskirts, it doesn't do good for the majority of your actual eyeballs in residential earn, in customers, right? And so, that's effectively, it's just an extension of that same trend, right? As bandwidth demands go up, as application performance becomes more critical, you're going to want to locate the capacity closer and closer to the user.

David: Yup. So that's, like, a great point. Let's talk about strategy and how companies...you've seen companies do that well or not do that well. You know, one of the biggest growth points in the data center market over the last, you know, three to five years has been the hyperscale market. It's really taken the industry to new levels from a demand perspective, etc. But there's also the enterprise user-base. You know, these are companies that traditionally have housed their infrastructure inside facilities of their own, they have come out most of them, half of them, into colocation facilities and now have some sort of hybrid approach with their IT infrastructure. So, you know, this edge idea and what you just described, there is an infrastructure strategy in play where some people are probably doing this well and some people are not. So, maybe talk about that, how have you seen companies do that well and approach their strategy well, maybe the enterprise user sector, how have you seen them do that well?

Sharif: Specifically in the enterprise sector, I think it's important to, like, you know, kind of...there's the Buddhist concept of the new mind, right, come into the problem with a clean slate. And that's really hard for larger enterprises because, you know, you have, you know, years of backlog and technical data, you know, facilities of different ages and infrastructure that's in different stages of its life cycle. And so, it really is hard to tackle that problem really as blank slate. But that really is, to me and from my perspective, the key to success for those enterprises, because there's a lot of different toolsets that are now available. And if you're thinking within the paradigms of 5, 10, 15 years ago, you're probably not going to build an optimal infrastructure, right, or a topology.

And so, you know, specifically, you know, you see a lot of enterprises shift and kinda cloudify their footprint. And then very quickly, they realize there's kind of a long tail of applications and services that don't make sense in the cloud. They're high bandwidth consuming, really expensive to locate far away. And so, you know, you see them kind of contract and reduce their, you know, enterprise data center footprint and as they cloudify. And then you walk through this building and there are 10 or 20 racks, right? And they still have to keep all of the infrastructure running for them, right? And so, that's really the challenge that I think we have a new tool to offer. It's like, hey, reclaim that real estate. You know, use it for whatever your primary revenue driving activities are. If you're a hospital, use it for patient beds. If you're manufacturing facility, use it for assembly lines. And we can put a facility in your parking lot that takes six or eight parking spots that are fully 2n, and redundant, and hardened, and free up all of that space, and all the operational costs of that large infrastructure.

David: Yeah. Let's do a little deeper dive on the product. You know, when the Compass edge product, what is it and, you know, where can you deploy it? I mean, talk about the actual details around the product itself.

Sharif: Okay. I'll try not to get down the rabbit hole with this one.

David: Come on, you're good, you're good.

Sharif: But this was one of my favorite topics.

David: Let's go.

Sharif: You know, I'm really proud of what we've built at Compass. And the key premise is the edge is in about one or two facilities and, you know, something I've, you know, told our board multiple times, anybody can deploy one or two little shelters, right, a little data center. So, it's not from an astronomical feat, right? The complexity becomes in mass and scale, right? And so, I have this kind of oh, crap moment when I was at Google when we ordered a new wave of 50 shelters. You know, we went through the normal pricing discussions and design discussions.

And finally, we were ready, everything was signed off. We issued the PO. And an hour later, I got an email, "Hey, we're really excited about your business. And attached is a spreadsheet. Please put the delivery addresses for all 50 of these shelters and the dates you need them by." And that was my oh, crap moment because I realized, well, now I have 50 little construction projects to manage, 50 little facility integration and commissioning projects to manage, 50 system deployment projects to manage, cabling, and racking, and stacking,

David: Hire 50 more people. We need...

Sharif: And they were all over the country, right? I mean, so it's...And so, that's the oh, crap moment. And everybody will hit that point, right? Anybody that's in this edge space, you know, right now we're kind of in a trial and nascent stage. But as the volumes increase and as the market demands grow, people are going to hit that point. And one of the breaking points there is those construction projects are rarely going to happen on the same time. And construction is ugly and, like, always unpredictable, right? That's just the nature of beast. And so, you can try to fight that, right? But good luck. Instead, what we try to do is design around that. So, what means is, we need to be able to ship one of our facilities, one of the EdgePoint data centers to whichever location is ready first.

And here's where the problem becomes, because what if one of your locations is in seismic zone four, and one of them is in a wind-rated area, right, where you need, you know, Miami-Dade County or something, right? So, all of a sudden, you're playing this game with the factory where they're going, "Okay, this shelter is ready." And you go, "Oh, no, the site that needed the seismic shelter isn't ready. We need the wind-rated one, or we need the one with the snow load rating." and you literally are playing kinda musical chairs with the factory trying to consolidate your multifaceted construction schedule with their production schedule. And it's, I mean, again, I lived through it and, like, messy, right?

And so, with our EdgePoint shelter, the key premise is that it's a single consistent footprint that can go into any region. So it's wind-rated, it's seismically rated, it's designed for, you know, high snow load areas, you know, hot and humid climates, wherever you need to place it in the country, it can go without any changes. And so, it allows a user to buy 200 of them and start 200 construction projects in just-in-time delivery as they come off the line, send them to whatever site is next.

David: Yeah. And physically, you can put them inside, outside, talk about that a little bit, I mean...

Sharif: So, technically, you put them wherever you want. With that said, we primarily designed it to be an outdoor shelter, specifically because we think from a real estate perspective, it's designed for that highest bar, designed to be withstanding the elements, designed it to be a hardened shelter. And then, yeah, if somebody wants to put it into an existing shell, there's no reason it won't work. But on the other hand, again, that consistency in product is key.

David: Yeah. Yeah. Your comments about the production of these units is really interesting because we've seen the focus on supply chain at the big scale in the space over the last three to five years. I mean, all you'll hear larger data center operators talk about hyperscale builds or they're talking about supply chain, you know, how quickly can we deliver this, how efficiently can we deliver this, how, you know, inexpensive for the user can deliver it. And it's interesting to see the supply chain conversation on the smaller scale, as far as the, you know, 100 kW, 200 kW range. Because I think what it shows is that speed of delivery and your ability to scale up quickly is super important in, you know, both sizes of requirements, and just speaks to the fact, I think, that the users today, the data center user expects or has matured to the point where, you know, they expect that solution to be delivered as quickly as possible. And it's interesting to see you all work through the process of going, "Hey, now we know we can deliver X amount of these in this amount of time in these regions, and they're all the same." So...

Sharif: No, absolutely. And it's about consistency and delivering, right? I mean, speed is obviously important, but at the end of the day, there's somebody managing their application performance, they're about to release a new feature, and they're looking at their capacity curve and graph, and they're going, "I need to turn on this new capacity the compute, the storage, its bandwidth, by Q3 or we're sunk," right, or, "we're not going to release this new feature. We're gonna lose against our competitors that are." And so really, that's the nature of the beast, and just understanding that you're a tail on a very large dog for these organizations. And working around those constraints is critical.

David: Yeah. Have you seen any different when you think of, like, industry verticals, you know, retail, healthcare, technology, financial, those type of firms, have you seen any of those companies gravitate more towards this type of, you know, data center in this approach, or does each one of those have a different mindset around that? Have you seen the different industry types embrace what you all are doing?

Sharif: Yeah. No, that's an excellent question. I think there's kind of two different segments of verticals, or categories of verticals. So, one of them is kind of on-premise solutions, right? So, I'm a university, I'm a hospital, I'm a manufacturing facility, I'm deploying more connected devices, there's more data being generated, that data doesn't all need to be backhauled, right, you know, video cameras, your surveillance cameras around your facility, that doesn't need to be cloudified, right? I just need to store 30 days of retention and then throw it away. And so, the on-premise solutions is in one category, I think the other...And honestly, you know, as I look at the edge space in general, I think it's often ignored. A lot of people are instead of gravitating towards the second category, which is that kind of wide mesh, you know, I'm going to deploy 5, 10, 50 of these around a city, and, you know, there's usually graphics of, like, autonomous cars or somebody with a VR headset involved, right?

And, you know, definitely at the base of a cell tower, it has to be at the base of a cell tower. And that's in its own category. And that opens up a whole slew of verticals, whether they're hyperscale companies, MNOs, Fixed Network Operators, anybody could technically play at that kind of edge mesh network space. But to be honest, like, while everybody's attention is there, I think there's a lot of applications that we're assuming will require X, you know, milliseconds of latency or microseconds of latency. Those applications haven't even been developed, much less adopted, much less those requirements fleshed out, right? And so, I'm not saying that trend isn't going to exist where performance needs to improve, but, you know, from my perspective, we're kind of assuming a lot as, you know, facility people and infrastructure people, as far as what the future will hold.

David: Yeah. You mentioned 5G. And, you know, talk about the impact that the growth of 5G and the maturity of 5G will have on the edge market. And what opportunities does that create for your team at Compass?

Sharif: Oh, great question again. No. So, everybody is excited about 5G, right? It's one more G better than what we have.

David: [Inaudible 00:21:09].

Sharif: No. I mean, it's obviously exciting, especially as mobile traffic keeps growing, right? And so, you know, we're now hitting the constraints of what our mobile devices can support. And we're seeing breaking points in stuff like jitter and latency on the performance on 4G networks. So, 5G is super exciting. With that said, 5G in and of itself doesn't demand edge computing, right? So, 5G is vehicle, right? And so if I say, "Hey, I'm going to give you a car that's twice as fast as your current car," does that mean you'll get everywhere in half the time? Well, no, right? You're still gonna obey the speed limit, you're gonna be at stoplights, right? Now, if I say, "Hey, if I give you a car that's twice as fast, but there's a family emergency across town," well, yeah, then you'll probably be. So, that's the need there, right? That family emergency is the need or the application. And so, sure, 5G will open the door to a bunch of needs and applications, but which one that will be, it's still to be seen.

David: So, that's a great tie-in to what do you feel like the needs are that are coming, that will help drive that? You know, so, say 5G is in place, it's efficient, you know, what are the needs that you all look at and go, hey, once these hit the way we anticipate, it really changes things for, you know, the market?

Sharif: Edge computing...So, first off, we really like to take an application-centric perspective, right? So, let's focus on the top of the stack, and then trickle those assumptions all the way down, right, rather than starting at the bottom. So, when you think about the applications, and you look at the trend, I mean, and we're gonna skip past, or I'll skip past all the, like, you know, surprising statistics over, you know, in the year 2022, data usage is going to be a kazillion petabytes, and, you know, like, sure. But we can all agree, we're not gonna be using less data, and it's probably a safe assumption we're going to be using more sure. What's really interesting about our data usage patterns, however, isn't just the quantity. What's specifically interesting about it is that the type of data that we're using is changing, it's evolving.

So, if you think of the internet 10 years ago, or even 5 years ago, those data patterns were largely a broadcast network. The majority of data was video data that was getting sent from central sources and down to our TVs and devices, right? And before that, it was music, and before that, it was, you know, email or articles, right, a broadcast network, duplicating, you know, newspaper, radio, TV, right? Well, now, we're seeing interesting data patterns that aren't going top-down, they're going sideways, they're going up. If you think, you know, my little surveillance cameras, my Nest cameras or whatever, is generating as much data as a TV station, you know? Like, I'm effectively a broadcast station at this point. I've got five channels, you know?

So, what an interesting traffic pattern. And now, the question is, well, does that traffic necessarily need to go over to Ashburn, Virginia or Phoenix? Now, chances are, I'm down the road in my office, and I'm just checking that, you know, UPS delivered my latest package, right? Why is that data getting backhauled across the country, right? When you order an Uber, why is that data getting sent out of state? You can't even order an Uber from out of state, you're definitely ordering one nearby, right? So, those are local traffic patterns that we're seeing with the data and the data going in different directions. And that, to me, is what's really going to drive a shift in the facilities and network architectures that support those patterns.

David: Yeah, that's interesting. You know, one of the interesting things I read about, this is probably three or four years ago, but it was talking specifically about how YouTube and how when that platform arose, how it really, you know, changed, it gave everyone the opportunity to, now you've got so many people producing data, and it's a similar...you know, you mentioned the Nest cameras, but it's like a similar approach, now you have this technology pieces that are producing the data. And if we put them into use from either a business perspective or a consumer perspective, the amount of that data is just exponential. And that's, today, let alone, you know...

Sharif: Whatever, 20-whatever, right?

David: Three years from now, five years.

Sharif: And it's not just that, that old broadcast model was largely supplemented by local caching, which was great, you know? Netflix has very efficient caching programs. And their Open Connect program is great at intercepting a lot of those requests and serving video very locally, right?

David: Yup.

Sharif: That's how their business model has managed to survive. But, again, when you're talking about broadcasting your videos, you know, to your grandma across the country, or your extended family, all of a sudden that local caching is completely useless, right? And so the way we've designed our systems, infrastructure, and topology, it needs to evolve.

David: Yeah. How has the hyperscale growth and what's happened over the last several years, how has that impacted the edge space? I mean, has that had a positive effect on the opportunities, a negative effect, neutral, maybe too early to tell, what's your thought on that?

Sharif: It's a complex ecosystem. Like, I don't know that I'd go so far as to say this is directly causing, you know, that. But there's a lot of correlations you can tie. So, on one side, you know, and I'm going to get a little more specific not just hyperscale but specifically the drive towards cloud, has pushed consolidation. It's pulled out capacity from local areas. And has opened an opportunity for a solution that will effectively let your capacity get closer to users, right? It has driven a little bit of a need. On the other hand, because those hyperscale cloud players have such an immense network and also, you know, their scale, it also gives them the opportunity to potentially get into the edge game themselves and just offer their platform closer. And you can see some of the early kind of band-aids of the edge need. You know, AWS has their Greengrass project if you're familiar.

David: Okay. No, I'm not familiar with that.

Sharif: So, this is like, and I hate to call it band-aid, but that's effectively what it is. It's, you know, an IoT device, an IoT aggregation device that they'll ship to your locations effectively off-net, right? Your manufacturing facility out in West Texas, you have all these IoT and automated devices, and you want to run everything within the AWS environment, they'll ship you a little box, right? And today, it's pretty rudimentary and corner case but it points to the requirement and the need. And so, as that need grows, as those factories get more automated as more data grows, well, that little box is gonna grow and before you know it you're gonna have a few racks of it.

David: Interesting. For the people that aren't as familiar with the edge discussion, you know, there's a lot of...some people are familiar with cloud computing, we've talked about edge, but there's also terms on fog computing. So, help demystify the edge versus the fog from your perspective.

Sharif: Yeah. The key to the edge markets...

David: And sometimes I feel, like, you know, not just the data centers, but the technology industry, just thrives on confusing people, you know? It's like, "Hey, how can we..." Anyways...

Sharif: Oh, no, no. You know, I feel like as the technology industry has grown, marketing has become just as key as the actual technology. And so, you know, Internet of things turned into, you know, internet of everything, turned into, you know? It's just...

David: Is there a difference there?

Sharif: Yeah, no. So, fog computing is effectively an implementation of the edge that's effectively a shared resource pool with multiple distributed facilities. So, it's...the simple way to say is all fog computing is effectively edge, but all edge computing isn't necessarily fog computing. I could put a single edge footprint that's not connected to a bunch of them, that those workloads are solely homed at one location, that's not fog computing. But there are applications where you could see benefit to shifting workloads to nearby, you know, facilities if you have a mesh network of facilities. And what's primarily kind of enabled that is in the network space, A, like, networking high bandwidth, like, high capacities gotten enormously cheap, right? Like, the network devices themselves and the capacities they can handle, I mean, I remember when, like, 10 gig optics were out and it was, like, insane. And, you know, now you're talking 100 or 400 gig. And now, people are pushing terabits.

And so, that with Network Function Virtualization, or NFV, has effectively allowed the network to be the backplane now. It's the system backplane. And so now, you can connect storage units, and, you know, GPUs, and CPU units, and build a virtual system, and they don't have to be physically located in the same spot. And now, that opens up kind of the concept of fog computing is I can kinda sprinkle my capacity around and poach from it as I need.

David: So when a user has a need and they, you know, either they approach you all or other edge companies, I mean, let's say, they're more enterprise user, and they might have a need for one of these. But let's say they have the need for 10 or 20 to solve a problem, how quickly can those be deployed based off of, you know, supply chain, and where they send them? I mean, what should a company be thinking about how quickly you could set up a complex system of, you know, these different deployments?

Sharif: No. Complex system, I'll absolutely echo that, right? It's not just about manufacturing the facilities in time, you have to think about the program holistically. And that's really, I think, where our experience at Compass lends an advantage because it's not simply about spitting out, you know, little data centers out of a factory, you have to work on your site, you know, your whole real estate program and site development program. You have to ask all the questions that data center people generally leave out, which is, how are you going to accomplish, you know, system integration once the facility arrives? How are you going to commission these remote facilities? How do you ship $5 million of IT to a location where you don't have a facility, a non-addressable location?

And, like, look, there's experiences of, you know, guys on my team towing an 800-pound router up a dirt path up a hill to get one of them, you know? And this is, like, a million-dollar piece of gear, right, with a little, like, hand truck, a U-Haul hand truck, right, like, the rented dolly. And so, those are the areas that anybody that's going to be successful in the edge space really need to focus on, not just focusing on their simple, you know, facility design, but zooming back and looking at a holistic solution that solves for those customers of scale. Because calling them and going, or setting them that spreadsheet and going, "Let us know where you want them delivered." Well, now, you're commoditized product, you're not really an ecosystem product.

David: Yeah, sure. And it is so strategic, you know, with the end game of serving the user better, to your point. I mean, and those are really good questions. We should make sure that we log those in the show notes just on how companies are thinking through their strategy with what they're actually deploying. And, you know, I think what this shows, and in your experience certainly proves, is just as the data center user is maturing, there's just...it's a really exciting time in our space because it's giving, you know, your work and others' work in this space and...is giving people the option, companies the option to build more efficient systems and ones that serve their business better, that serve their end-users better. And so, I just think it's a really exciting time. And I'm fascinated to think about the next three to five years and what this space will become.

Sharif: No, absolutely.

David: And maybe talk about that, just the future of EdgePoint and the Compass EdgePoint product, and, you know, why you're excited about the next five years in the space, and what you think the opportunities are.

Sharif: Yeah, I think, so, first, you know, as kind of a self-professed geek, right? The next three to five years are going to see just a really interesting array of applications that I'm very selfishly excited in because I hate sitting in traffic and driving my own car, and, you know? So, like, A, just I'm really excited about all the gadgets coming out, right? Like, life has just gotten better with technology, right? Like, I can monitor my house, I can unlock my door, like, I can do so many operations that, you know, used to be tedious and, you know, very manual before, right? So, A, the applications are exciting. And that just excites me as a technologist. Second, it's really being able to leverage our experience and support those users in understanding kind of the journey that needs to be traveled as their application grows and needs distributed infrastructure.

Again, the lessons I learned over the past five, six years being in a program like this, I can't wait to leverage those for our customers, again, not because we're necessarily the smartest people here, but the scars on my back, I'd love to turn those into lessons learned and get a positive outcome, right? Lemons and lemonade. So, I'm really excited to be able to, you know, work with our customers and new potential customers to really lean on that experience, build a program for them that is holistic, and show them the advantages that we can bring to the table.

David: Yeah. Well, Sharif, thank you for sharing your insight with us. And, you know, for those that are watching, this is a fascinating discussion because it's very much today, but it's very much looking out at the future of where things are going. And so, I just always appreciate people that are willing to share what they've learned through their career path, through where they are now. So, I'm certainly excited about what you all are doing and it will be fun to watch over the next several years.

Sharif: Oh, thank you.

David: You bet.

Sharif: It was a pleasure.

David: You bet.

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About Sharif: Sharif Fotouh is the Managing Director of Compass EdgePoint and an ex-Googler. Fotouh is responsible for the Compass EdgePoint's edge data center solutions as part of our comprehensive core-to-the-edge offering to customers. He is recognized across both the information technology and the data center industries as one of the preeminent experts on edge computing. He has more than 10 years of tenure leading large data center and technology teams, including founding and leading Google Fiber's national network facilities and deployment engineering program.

If you're interested in seeing how EdgePoint and Compass Datacenters can help your organization make the most of your data center needs - now and in the future, reach out to us here and someone will get back to you shortly.

Compass Datacenters’ Sharif Fotouh Sits Down with datacenterHawk to Talk All Things Edge was first published to: https://www.compassdatacenters.com/

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Hi,What is your experience with getting less educated users? I'm specifically talking about people who at most have passed high-school and at minimum have passed 5th grade. They can read, write, and do arithmatic. They are decently proficient at what they do. Their English is weak, but they can recognize the characters - the application will need to be in the local language. The youngins are phone obsessed but rarely in a productivity enhancing manner. Our target audience is the most technically skilled segment in this group.We've got an idea, and are working on validation before any code is written. My partner and I have a decent bit of experience with these folk due to a past project that is winding down. So we are talking to them, but has anyone here tried to get these type of users? How has it gone?I think we are well poised to execute compared to others because of our previous project. We understand the market in the way most on this board just never will (unless have come from that sort of terrain). We also have enough friends In the market to get initial traction. And my partner is really really good at building relationships.Additionally, just cause I'm posting this: I'm a data guy who learned how to program mostly to gather, clean, analyze, and visualize data. My econometrics & Linear Algebra is top notch. Weirdly enough, I also learned a lot of front end through various projects I have done. So Java, javascript, and html are my fortay when it comes to application development.In order to make money, this application needs a lot of data and then very thorough analysis of it. I can design an interface user friendly enough for these folk, and I can produce nice dashboards through R to automate the analysis aspect. But I can't make the server side script (I'm thinking PhP with my MySQL) without sinking a bit of time into learning them both.For previous projects I used Parse (RIP) and firebase.I miss Parse because I definitely need a relational database for this project, and I don't think the quasi-JSON of Firebase is a good fit for what I'm trying to build. I'm a quick learner, code comes naturally to me (father built his career through coding, and is an ex-titan in the IT industry as CEO of a company you know).Should I find a relational database API, in the hopes of getting funding and some backend coders, or should I just say fuck it and learn how to make the backend for the MVP? If the enterprise is successful, I don't think I can be a good technical leader if I don't have a thorough understanding of the backend, and one thing is certain: these backend as a service don't scale at all.I mean worst case: I learn the skills and the enterprise fails. But then I have front-end, back-end, and data analysis/engineering in my arsenal. I would be the fullest of full stack engineers.But the medium case is: We gain traction, I don't learn the necessary skills, and then we have to do a ground-up rebuild because the application can't scale at all.I mean probability speaking wise With a 90% + chance of failure - it's probably best to do the easier thing. But I also gain a whole new skillset by doing the harder thing. I have at max 11 months to prove this works before my family starts demanding results and stops supporting my ass saying either get a job or go for a PhD (I've got to apply this winter to satiate them).