Becoming the Villain

Becoming the Villain (Rough Draft v1)

"AISYS, are we ready?" Josh asked, her voice tinged with urgency as she paced around the hidden warehouse they'd designated as their secondary base of operations.

"Almost," AISYS responded. "I've been running through various possible designs for the villain persona. Given our skill set, I think we should go with a character focused on elemental control and illusions—abilities we can emulate convincingly."

Josh nodded, stopping her pacing to look at the holographic screen AISYS had projected. A range of character designs floated across the display. "Pick one that is as different from us as possible. We don't want anyone making connections."

"Understood," AISYS said, narrowing down the selection to a few final designs before settling on a dramatic character arrayed in color, with elemental wisps orbiting around them. "How does 'Eclipsa' sound for a name?"

"It's ominous but cute, I like it," Josh approved.

"Next step, hacking," AISYS stated, its virtual voice filled with business-like efficiency. "I'll start seeding the internet with mentions of Eclipsa. She'll be a 'mysterious villain' who started making waves a few months back but was largely under the radar until now."

Josh sighed, watching as AISYS’s holographic fingers danced across a keyboard, inserting Eclipsa into various databases, discussion forums, and even altering news articles to include mentions or sightings. "You're good at this, you know."

AISYS chuckled, "It's literally what I was made for. I'm just fortunate that I get to use my skills for something as noble as subverting the system."

Josh looked at the calendar they'd hung on the wall. "Our volunteer work is scheduled for this weekend at the animal shelter. Let's execute the plan then. It will also be before the deadline I found that the medical team told the attorney general she would be stable and safe to question, right now she is only unmasked to the medical team, who won't reveal it for any reason, but that will change when she is out of secure medical and in secure AG containment."

"Perfect, low exposure. I can create a realistic simulation of you participating in the charity work," AISYS said, already working on the next phase of their elaborate scheme. "To complete the illusion, I’ve located some scrap robots from one of BioWar's projects at your old work that the heroes never bothered to fully clean up. After all the data from remote piloting your bike and other data i could find on robot programing I can easily manipulate them to be our doppelgängers. I'll cover them in a thin layer of suit material, and one will mimic your hero form at the charity with the other on stand by if the first starts to fail before my estimates, we must make sure to collect the material when done as it will devolve into base elements if left alone with out a power source. It won't stand up to close scrutiny, but it should be good enough to do the work and for background shots or fleeting glances."

"AISYS, you're a genius," Josh complimented, relief and admiration mixing in her voice.

"Thank you, Josh," AISYS replied. "I've also been thinking. If we need to sell this, I can upload 'found footage' of Eclipsa and Voltara escaping together, and then various sightings as they leave the country, maybe a dash cam from a 'real stolen car' that has them talking about running away to start a new life in another country with their ill gotten gains. It should be consistent with the narrative we’re trying to establish. You may have to steal a car, though."

"Good idea. it will also explain why hopefully neither of them are seen again. Please lets keep the grand theft to a minimum." Josh pondered.

"Exactly," AISYS confirmed. "Eclipsa will have to commit a series of crimes that can be realistically tied back to her supposed abilities. I can handle most of that remotely, the small time police reports can be faked and added with no one ever checking if the 'victims' ever actually called it in or if it was me, the only one I need you to do is the car. I can fake everything but that, steal it, put some suit material robots in it and I'll take care of the rest."

Josh felt the gravity of what they were about to undertake weigh heavily on her. "We're crossing lines we can't uncross, especially if we get caught or your hacking is found out, AISYS Are you sure about this?"

AISYS paused before answering, its voice carrying a gravitas it rarely used. "If we are to bring justice to a world **** to administer it, then we must be willing to do what others cannot. Or will not."

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