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Nanoculture's proximity sensors began screaming mere nanoseconds after it was blinded. It quickly dispersed the entire swarm, attempting to minimize the damage. However, Nanoculture had learned at least one thing about this assailant-- it was definitely a CORE operative (OoC: You know, since you can't hack into the CORE network I figured I'd have him learn some way. BiC:).

When its vision returned, after the IR ghosts had dissipated from its monitors, Nanoculture transmitted the information to the GS beta-testing center. Rather, it attempted to-- it seemed that the recent plasma activity had effectively chaffed the cavern they were now in; no transmissions could be either sent or received, at least until the chamber had cooled back to normal. Nanoculture attempted to reassemble itself. As the swarm formed its clusters, it could sense a few of them dying off as they were hit by drips of plasma. However, enough bots had survived to create a moderately functional apparatus, and so Nanoculture reformed itself.

It retained its spherical form, and readied its mass propulsor while it stayed low to the ground. Nanoculture moved slowly and deliberately, attempting to remain as silent as possible as it systematically checked every last nook and cranny of the cavern. Strangely, its attacker was nowhere to be seen.

Either the Nanoculture dodged the flare and wasn't hit, or it was completely vaporized by it, since it wasn't anywhere to be seen. Jennifer decided that the former option was most likely, knowing what she did about the swarm. To avoid detection by it, she fired her grappling cable up at the ceiling. The hook at the end of the cable gripped into the rough stone walls of the cavern, and she pulled herself up into the area where the flare had gone off. She hoped that if the swarm could see infrared radiation, like she could with her helmet visor, that the hotspot the flare had left behind would mask her own heat signature, at least for a while.

Remembering the effectiveness that the electricity from her plasma weapon had on the Nanoculture earlier, Jennifer activated the electrocaster function on one of her armguns. As the weapon charged up an electric shock, Frost scanned the deep dark cavern for the swarm. Eventually she spotted it, a yellow orb lurking among the dark blue stalagmites in her visor. It was silently making its way along the ground, most likely searching for her. As it approached the ground underneath her, Frost slowly lowered herself slightly from the ceiling, hanging by the strong metal wire.

Once the Nanoculture got into range, Jennifer would release the electric charge in her weapon, hopefully incapacitating the swarm once again. What she would do at that point she wasn't sure. First thing, she would have to carry it out of the labyrinth of caves they were in. However, the last time, it had reactivated after a while and escaped. She had nothing to hold the robot in, although she could probably get CORE to bring something. Right now, though, she was too far underground to send any sort of radio message.

Soon, the Nanoculture was nearly in range. Frost aimed her armgun, ready to release the shot.

Nanoculture did not find the CORE assailant anywhere, which could only mean bad news. Nothing showed up on its IR, electromagnetic, or X-Ray optics. It appeared that she had disappeared. Nanoculture had barely enough time to contemplate her disappearance when its sonar started pinging like crazy-- she had somehow managed to get on the ceiling!

Nanoculture whipped towards the pings and started firing like crazy. Stalactites fell, but the attacker made no noise if she had been hit. When the plasma weapon overheated, Nanoculture began to ready its mass propulsor. Backing towards one of the entrances towards the cavern as it did so. The temperature was rising, according to its sensors, so the entrance it was backing toward must lead to the surface. Nanoculture stopped and let loose a storm of swarm-bullets.

Just before the Nanoculture was within range of Jennifer's electrocaster, it suddenly detected her. It fired a stream of red plasma shots at her, and the superheated gas splashed against her armor. The heat blanked out her infrared screen, and she blindly jumped down from the ceiling. Stalactites started to fall down from the ceiling as well, shattering when they hit the ground, and throwing dust and smoke into the air. Regaining her vision, Jennifer dodged behind a stalagmite, avoiding more plasma fire and falling rocks.

The Nanoculture backed away, towards one of the tunnels, and as it did its plasma weapon overheated again. Jennifer was about to jump out and start firing her own weapon at the swarm, but it switched to its chaingun and started firing projectiles into the cavern. More stalactites fell, and suddenly a loud cracking sound resounded through the cave. Jennifer looked up, and could see with her infrared a large crack forming in the roof of the cave. The walls shuddered, and Jennifer knew that a cave-in was imminent. She quickly dashed into the nearest tunnel, just as the roof of the cavern collapsed in, sealing off all the tunnels.

Jennifer turned her active nightvision back on. She would have to find that nanoswarm again.

Hopefully this tunnel led back to the surface.

Nanoculture was hiding as it attempted to assemble itself. It already memorized the layout of its two most basic forms, and now that of a swarm of bats, but it needed something less... inhuman to deal with the human. And so, there in the darkness, Nanoculture changed. The ring surrounding its aperture glowed a soft blue as clusters of nanobots swirled around the main swarm. Slowly, a torso of bots began to form, then legs, then a head, and finally arms. They were crude at first, like those of a rag doll, but they became more refined (and longer) as more carbon was mined from the rock nearby.

The ring surrounding its aperture was completely gone now, its ocular aperture was now located on its head. Its right hand reassembled itself into the plasma gun, its left into the mass propulsor. Nanoculture attempted to walk. It was extremely clumsy, but soon it learned to calculate the vectors more easily, and started to run.

Jennifer Frost ran through the dark tunnels, dodging the occasional rocky outcropping, and ducking under the occasional flock of bats (carefully checking each time to make sure they were really bats). As she made her way through the labyrinth, temperature indicators on her visor informed her that she was getting closer to the surface. Being closer to the surface now, her radio started to crackle as it caught bits and pieces of some nearby signal, most of the radio waves blocked by the thick walls of stone. She only caught a few words before she turned the radio back off.

Suddenly she heard footsteps echoing from a connecting tunnel. She switched from nightvision to infrared, and hid among the outcroppings in the tunnel wall. From the other tunnel, a figure ran out. It looked vaguely humanoid in shape, but it clearly wasn't natural. It was featureless, and its face was blank except for the iconic ocular aperture that informed Jennifer that this was, indeed, the Nanoswarm. It had imitated and copied her own form, much like it had with the swarm of bats earlier.

Rather than give the swarm a chance to notice her, she quickly jumped out with both guns blazing.

Nanoculture stumbled out of the way of the blast, still not having mastered the basic concepts of human motion. It took aim with its plasma gun and fired, but was way off of its mark. Aiming would take time to get down too. The blast aggravated a swarm of bats nearby, and they proceeded to freak out, shrieking and flying towards the entrance of the cave. The bots grazed Nanoculture, and it lost its balance, tipped, fell onto its back. The CORE attacker took the opportunity to hold Nanoculture in place, pinning its arms to its sides and readying her electrocaster in case the SWARM attempted to flee.

Nanoculture formed a hole underneath its aperture, and attempted to mimic human mouth movements. The bots in its "throat" pulsed and vibrated, creating a noise like the humming of a thousand angry people. Nanoculture was eventually able to form basic vowels and syllables, and attempted to speak.

"W... whyyyy," its first word slid out of its mouth, ending in a strange harmonic chord, "why d-do youuu hunting usssssss...?"

The Nanoswarm was obviously new to this form, and still in the learning stage. Jennifer was able to quickly subdue it as a flock of bats caused the swarm to stumble and fell over. She held its arms in place, and pointed the smoking barrel of her plasma rifle at its head, waiting for the electrocaster to charge up. For the time being, the swarm wasn't even struggling, but Jennifer didn't think it was planning on letting her pull it out of the caves without a fight.

Some of the nanobots in the swarm's face moved, creating an orifice no doubt analogous to a mouth. It began to make some noises, apparently attempting to speak. After a couple minutes it managed to form some recognizable sounds, and then finally some words.

"Why d-do youuu hunting usssssss...?" the Nanoculture spoke its first words. By vocalizing this question, the Nanoculture was expressing its ability to think. The Nanoculture was, in a sense, a sapient and living creature. It didn't want to be hunted or attacked, it just wanted to be left alone and free.

The moral implications of treating like just another machine were ignored by Jennifer.

"Because it was what I was hired to do," Jennifer answered, speaking to the swarm for the first time. "Because those are my orders."

Nanoculture could not calculate a response, so instead focused on its current situation. There was something strange, almost like an electrical current running through it that should not have been there. The current, it realized, was stopping it from splitting apart, and it couldn't be sure if it was some side effect of taking a human form, or if it was something that the CORE operative was doing to it-- but it didn't really matter all that much.

Nanoculture attempted to hook its legs around the assailant's, succeeded, and essentially turned the entire scene around so that Nanoculture was now pinning its attacker's arms to her sides, her weapons rendered useless. It readied its mass propulsor and pointed it directly between the CORE agent's eyes.

"Why dooo you ordered heereee?" it hissed, the words now starting to slide out more easily, almost lyrically. The CORE agent struggled and began to fiddle with something that Nanoculture could not identify, but Nanoculture would not relent without an answer. It was alive now, and wanted to stay that way. A snake slithered nearby, inching its way towards the undoubtedly shocking and confusing spectacle before it. It was vaporized by way of Nanoculture's plasma gun.

The situation turned around quickly when suddenly the Nanoculture took over, pinning Jennifer's arms to her sides where her electrocaster would be useless. It aimed its chain gun directly at her head, to make sure she didn't try anything. At point blank range, Jennifer figured the weapon would probably be strong enough to shoot right through her visor, so it would be best not to provoke the swarm into firing. The weapon attached to her arm beeped to inform her that a shot was ready and charged, but she couldn't properly aim the weapon with her arms held down.

"Why dooo you ordered heereee?" the swarm hissed at her, getting better at speaking. Out of the corner of her eye, Jennifer noticed a cave snake slithering on the ground towards them. Nanoculture vaporized it with a flash of red plasma, a hint towards its current impulsiveness. Jennifer only had a weapon on one of her arms, the other one was empty. The Nanoculture was mostly concerned with the weapon on her left arm of course, and Jennifer struggled with her empty right arm to reach a button on her wrist. It also didn't pay much attention to her feet, where there weren't any apparent weapons.

"Just doing my job," she said to the robot. It probably wasn't a satisfactory answer, but before the Nanoculture had a chance to respond, Jennifer managed to tap the button against a rock on the ground. A burst of compressed air fired the grappling hook through the air, attaching it to the ceiling. Jennifer then drove the blade now extending from her boot into the Nanoculture's leg, causing it to lose its grip. The assassin was pulled away via the grappling cable. Quickly recovering, the nanoswarm fired its mass propulsor at her, barely missing. Now free, Jennifer aimed and fired her electrocaster.

Nanoculture found itself once again incapacitated, and because of the critical error that ensued, it reflexively reverted itself back to its spherical form. The "mood ring" surrounding its ocular aperture began to pulse with a white glow as it went into critical mode. Eventually, the palisade layer of bots managed to slide its way over the ocular aperture, forming a seamless cover. It was now just a sphere, nothing more.

Nanoculture shut down. It had lost.

For a moment, Jennifer did nothing. She watched the solid black sphere as it sat there on the cave floor, motionless. After a few moments had passed, she was convinced that the Nanoculture had shut down again, the electric shock being too much for its system. Jennifer dropped down from the ceiling, releasing the grappling cable, and put away her plasma weapon. She picked up the nanoswarm sphere, and began to carry it out of the caves.

Navigating the maze wasn't hard, and it only took a couple of minutes before Jennifer was back out in the forest. She dropped the oversized bowling ball on the leaf-covered ground, and turned on her radio transciever. "Target temporarily incapacitated, requesting pick-up and proper restraint for the target," she said. CORE responded immediately.

"Extraction being sent to your coordinates. Containment for the target is prepared. ETA five minutes," the voice on the other end said. Jennifer found a large rock nearby on which she could sit and wait for the extraction helicopter. The Nanoculture sat a few feet away, and Jennifer kept her eye on it.

Despite the ventilation and cooling systems, Jennifer was feeling somewhat stuffy if not claustrophobic inside her helmet. She unlocked the helmet and pulled it off, taking a deep breath of fresh air and letting the cool wind flow through her long blonde hair. The helicopter should arrive now in the next few minutes, and this mission would be all over. She couldn't wait to get back home.

From a clearing to the left of the assassin and her quarry, a strange sound became audible. It was a humming, buzzing, and clicking all at once. As the sound reverberated, a door appeared, right there, in the middle of the clearing. Leaves flew around it at gale force before settling down again. It was a plain door, like the kind you would expect on the front of a house rather than in the middle of a forest.

The door clicked, creaked, opened. From it emerged a man dressed in formal business attire. From back in side the door, which remained open behind him, he removed a folding chair, which he pulled up and sat down on in the clearing. During this entire ordeal, the CORE operative had her weapon readied. She rolled Nanoculture with her feet until she could keep her eye on it as well as in the clearing.

"You must be Jennifer Frost," were the man's first words. He appeared to be in his fifties, his hair slicked back like the Mafia days of old. He fiddled with his ring as he spoke, his voice a deep baritone. "We've been watching you for quite some time now." The CORE agent did not respond. "Although you have disabled our property fairly, we at Gemini Sciences would greatly appreciate working out some sort of deal for the SWARM... whatever the CORE is paying you, we're prepared to match their price and then some..."

The man smiled as he spoke, even though the agent kept her sidearm aimed at his head through the entire speech.

When the strange noise began, Jennifer put her helmet back on. She now stood with her charged plasma weapon aimed at the strange man, keeping her right foot rested on top of the Nanoculture. Gemini Sciences. She didn't know much about Gemini Sciences, only that the Nanoculture belonged to them. CORE certainly knew a great deal more than that. This man was apparently willing to pay her to return the Nanoculture.

As she would have expected, a voice suddenly came over her radio. "Although I'm sure you wouldn't, I must remind you not to listen to him. You are under direct order." CORE would take great disappointment with her if she went against their will and sold away her mission. They paid her plenty enough anyway, and how was she to know that Gemini Sciences would keep their word? The strange man would probably walk the SWARM through the door and she'd never hear from him again.

And it wasn't as if CORE would let the Nanoculture get away, even if she failed her mission. They had other, more efficient, means. In fact, Jennifer was quite sure that the only reason they sent her, one person, after the Nanoculture was to test her. Either way, she wasn't going to disobey direct orders. Especially not orders from CORE. She looked the strange man in the eyes, even though he couldn't see hers.

"I'm afraid if you want the SWARM, you'll have to come and get it. And I don't plan on making that easy," Jennifer said. Her helmet was set to deepen and amplify her voice, making it sound somewhat foreboding. "Also...how would you know my name?"

"Please," the main chided, "I'm sure you've been fully briefed on the vast and highly effective resources of Gemini Sciences, there's no point in thinking there's anything about you that we don't know. I'm also sure that you're currently searching for my identity in all databases you have access to. Even if you find my identity, it's not that it'll matter..." he said, turning around and waving over his shoulder as he headed back to the door, "...you'll never see me again. In fact, if you haven't changed your mind by the time that the sun sets this evening, it's highly unlikely that you'll see anyone ever again. Good-bye, miss Frost." As he shut the door, it seemed oddly muted. As it faded away, the chair he left toppled and whirled around in the whirlwind left by whatever technology was responsible for such an apparition as a solitary door anyhow.

It was very quiet.

Nanoculture still did not move.

Indeed, the man was correct in his assumptions. Already, Jennifer Frost had initiated a facial recognition scan and was running it through the CORE identity database. She could see the progress meter in the corner of her eye, lit up on her helmet's display visor. It climbed from 0% to 100% in a matter of seconds (she had limited the search to only include identities related in some way to Gemini Sciences, making it a quick search). The progress meter changed into a round flashing icon, indicating that it had found a result. The icon remained patiently in the corner of her visor, waiting for her to pull it up into her field of vision when she was ready for it.

Before pulling up the results to where they would block her vision, Jennifer listened to the man rant off his spiel and then disappear back into that mysterious door of his. He had left behind his chair, and after the door vanished it spun quickly around in circles before falling down and folding shut. Jennifer walked into the clearing where the door was and put her foot on the folded chair. She thought about the strange things the man had said. "If you haven't changed your mind by the time that the sun sets this evening, it's highly unlikely that you'll see anyone ever again." Was that a threat? What was this man planning? Did he have men here, right now, watching, waiting?

With a flick of her eyes the icon in the corner jumped up into the middle of her visor and pulled up an identity file. Displayed prominently was a picture of the man she had just seen. Next to it were various things about his identity. Many of the fields were empty, indicating information unknown, and other fields were completely blacked out, indicating classified information beyond Jennifer's rank.

Michael Johansson
Gemini Sciences
Male
53 years old

It went on to describe various physical features, such as his height, weight, and eye color. It wasn't incredibly interesting, especially since the most interesting parts (such as work history, medical history, home address, and favorite food) were blacked out, apparently top secret stuff. Although it did list his favorite color. Chartreuse, apparently.

Frost looked up, glancing over to make sure the SWARM was still inactive. She had a job to do, and however intriguing this little encounter was, she still had to perform her duty. Gemini Sciences might have assassins or spies or something waiting out in the forest, but it wasn't anything she couldn't handle. After all, she was one of CORE's best assassins herself. Besides, it wasn't as if CORE didn't have men watching and waiting as well.