Issue 1 Downtime

Wanda had somewhat squeezed herself in table with a basket of chips and a book. Her drink didn't appear alcoholic at first glance. She flipped the pages slowly, either reading very deliberately or maybe just a slow reader. The title on the spine read "The Book of Five Rings".

On his way to the bar, John spotted Wanda and the book she was reading. He approached.

"Musashi huh? I've been meaning to read that."

"It's interesting. Not directly applicable to anything I'm doing at the moment, but I hadn't read it yet, so I decided to give it a chance."

"My father dropped quite a few hints I should read it. Which was a little odd, given he had no real problem with telling me what to do."

"I can't see how forcing anyone to read this would cause them to get anything out of it. This is a book you must want to read in order for it to be useful."

"That makes sense, I guess," he nodded.

"So... having a good week so far?"

"It's been a pretty good week," she said, putting the book down. "Been keeping busy, so that's nice."

"Yeah," he nodded, "I've been busy breaking in that geek-toy I told you about."

"Getting the bugs worked out?"

"Yeah, though so far fewer bugs than I expected given it's my first real time programming anything this complex."

"Well, good for you then. That must feel good."

"It does," he smiled.

"Wanna see it?"

Meanwhile, a short distance away, five little figures peered on.

Alarmed observation: The Draco-humanoid is forming an alliance with a giantess.
Theory: The Draco-humanoid speaks of programming. It is creating its own race to eradicate us.
Irrelevant comment: The giantess is pretty!
Tactical assessment: I need a bigger sword.
Conflicting observation: You cannot carry a bigger sword.

"Sure. Why not."

He brought his arm forward and tapped his armband to bring up the holographic screen. With a simple gesture, the screen turned to face her.

"Pretty cool. Looks good to me."

"My favorite bit so far?" he said as he brought it back around. He then brought up a map of London. I started out flat, but with a few gestures it went horizontal and rose up to a full 3D hologram.

"And what's the purpose of the 3D view?"

"You mean aside from being really cool?" he smirked, "A view closer to reality seems the better way to get ones bearings, does it not?"

"That depends on how you're getting your bearings. If you're doing it with streets, the 3D is just clutter. If you're doing it by landmark, then I could see the 3D being useful."

"Well yeah... It's more of a tech showcase... I guess..." he said, a little crestfallen.

"You've got to start somewhere and showcasing the tech is the first step." Wanda smiled at him.

He smiled and nodded, "That and figuring out where exactly my skills lie."

Wanda might see it coming, but probably not in time to say anything. A little four-inch winged robot streaked over, paper-airplane style, giving a lift to another four-inch robot, this one holding a sword as big as it was made out of a pocketknife blade. As you really can't control paper airplanes much, neither could this little guy, so the aim was a little off when he gave the other one a boost off toward Jon. The end result being that, yet again, Jon was getting whacked ineffectually by the sword while the little robot scrambled to not fall off the back of his chair.

Wanda blinked in surprise at the assault, but recovered enough to make a grab for the one that had flown overhead, leaving the "sword"-swinger for John to deal with.

As soon as Wanda snatched hold of the thing's leg, it flopped against her hand. The robots had a delicate look to them up close, the moving parts made of carefully arranged and crafted steel rods, the unmoving parts looking more like welded wire mesh than anything else (despite being rather firm to the touch. The wings on this one actually had individually made, tiny wire feathers attatched to what appeared to be a polymer sheet that actually allowed it to glide. All in all, it felt rather fragile if she wasn't careful.

Immediately on grabbing it, any cell phones in the immediate vicinity began beeping as they intercepted multitudes of messages.

Alarmed exclamation: RUN! RUN! THEY HAVE ME! SAVE YOURSELVES! RUN! SAVE YOURSELVES! MISSION FAILURE! RUN!

Also, at this point, the other little robot did fall off the back of the chair and out of sight.

"God damn it!" John growled as he bent the discarded 'sword' into scrap. "You little monsters aren't getting away with this shit! Not anymore!" he shouted angrily. So that's what anger is like.

The only real reply that came from that was a scurrying sound near the door, and an increase in the rate that the nearby phones started registering texts.

Wanda held the one in her hand gently but firmly and looked at it with a frown. "I'm going to assume that one of you is doing the texting. Stop it... now."

"Don't bother. It's not as if they'll listen," he said judgmentally.

The little robot kept freaking out and trying to free its leg. The texts stopped, though.

"Now I suggest you calm down before I accidentally crush you. John, do you know this thing?"

"Not specifically, but I know who made the little urchins."

The robot, comically, paused a second as it considered what Wanda said. Then its panic resumed and it kept trying to get away.

"So should we return it to its creator?"

"Exactly my idea," he nodded.

The robot finally just went limp in her hand. Yet another text came through.

Designation: Phooey. Rank: Air Supremacy Commander.

"That's better, Phooey," she said, looking at her phone. "Care to tell me why you attacked John?"

John glanced at her phone.

"Name, rank, number? Really?"