Collaborative post between Forest State and Durmatagno
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK CITY
Team Aegis - New York City Division
June 14th, 2025
Rosalie tapped her foot as she hummed to herself, quietly thinking about everything. Today was supposed to have been a good day, a great day even. First day at both her new jobs. The Team, Aegis, her new job with NEC. Instead she'd been stuck in traffic, was several hours late, and then she'd had to fight a group of stupid androids. Well she didn't have to, but it was better than just sitting in traffic and waiting. The cab she was in pulled up to her first destination and things got even worse. Officers, tape, the whole fiasco. She got out of the taxi, got the trunk popped to grab her bags, only two, everything else had been flown in, especially her suit. Paying the driver, she sighed, and moved up, looking at the mess. Didn't look like she was getting shown around or introduced to her new coworkers anytime soon. Setting down her bags, she pulled out her phone and began looking for somewhere nearby she could eat at. Something with good pie or ice cream, she needed something sweet to distract herself with. She sighed loudly, scrolling through the listings looking for something she thought sounded good.
"This day just keeps getting better and better."
She talked to herself, bitterly, as she sat down on the bigger of her bags. It was just clothes, nothing important. Nothing she had to worry about, not that she weighed to much. She kept herself in good shape, not entirely on purpose, but she liked to work on things by hand, and shape metal, kept one in good shape. She shoved her phone in her pocket as she chose a burger joint a few blocks away, reviews said it had really good pie. She wouldn't know till she had some, but it was worth a shot.
"Maybe things will get better after lunch. Can't start here, might as well head off to meet the rest of the team elsewhere."
At which point a low to the ground sports car which had received plenty of upgrades pulled up to the front of the NEC building, someone else coming out of it and looking at the yellow tape around the site. The entrance was unfortunately closed off, but the person, a member of the Hero League, stared at it as if contemplating whether to try to enter. She decided against it and turned so Rosalie could see her face: Shayla Rush was her name, and she was mildly recognizable in this area. "Fuck me, aren't you the new employee?" she asked, raising an eyebrow and cursing herself for not immediately recognizing the other girl. "Some day you picked to come here. Like, Jesus Christ, things can really change quickly..."
Rosalie jumped at the voice as she'd somewhat zoned out in her grumpiness. Turning to Shayla, she blinked before realizing what she said. Jumping up to her feet, she nodded and held out her hand.
"Oh! Sorry, was zoned out a bit. Yeah I am, was told to come in earlier but there was this thing with androids, and traffic got backed up, and I had shoot a few of them, and it just made everything much slower. Rosalie. Rosalie Morrigan."
Rosalie smiled semi-genuinely, mostly though she was grumpy and frustrated from her entire day being put on its head. Her bags were still on the ground behind her, though the bigger one now had a big crease from where she'd been sitting. The smaller was just to it's side, and was much cleaner.
Shayla offered her hand, seemingly amused by the fact that the girl was surprised to see her. "Came here to see if they moved the tape but it looks like this place is going to be closed for a good while. Don't even want to think about how much money we're going to lose from this whole thing. I just hope we can get to the bottom of it quickly, I have my theories - Oh, I'm getting a bit off track. Name's Shayla... Rush. I was told that I'm going to be working with you, at the company and at the Hero League," she replied. "You seem talented enough from the report they gave me. Reminds me a little of an earlier me, actually."
"A compliment, not many people give them to me."
Rosalie turned away and grabbed her bags, looking at the map on her phone before turning back.
"So I was going to hit lunch before I headed in to report to the team's HQ, and after that start unpacking. Seeing as you're sort of my boss, want to hit lunch with me? Not much reason to just sit around here waiting for the tape to be taken down."
Rosalie glanced back at the building and sighed.
"Just hope my armor doesn't get wrapped up in all this. It was hard enough to build that in a backyard shed, I don't want to have to do it again."
Shayla pointed to the sports car, pressing a button on a remote to raise the doors, which went upwards instead of outwards. "Yeah, sure. We can ride in here, I don't get enough chances to use this thing really," she said, moving to the driver's seat. "And it doesn't look like I'm going to be able to keep going with my research into this event anytime soon. Just name where you want to go," she said, pulling out her phone to look at a map of the local area of Brooklyn.
"Found this place called Brooklyn's Greasy Spoon a few blocks from here. Reviews said it has amazing pie."
Rosalie packed her bags away and climbed in. She wasn't used to anything this expensive, she mostly used public transportation. Most of her spare money had always gone to one project or another. Including the plasma potato gun, that unfortunately exploded and destroyed her old deans car. Oops. She hoped that hadn't hit her boss' radar. That'd be one awkward story.
"I'd ask what the hell is going on, but seems you don't know much more than I do."
Accelerating quickly, Shayla pulled away from the curb and started towards the place that Rosalie had named. "I was on duty with the Hero League when things kicked off. One moment they were telling us there was some kind of problem with rogue androids, and me and the others flew out to deal with it. Midway through the op they tell us we have to be redirected somewhere else because they found where the signals are coming from, and apparently it was somewhere in the NEC office here."
She sat back as they waited in the infamous NYC traffic, hand moving to her temple in frustration with the situation in general. "I haven't even been to the place in a few days, I still have projects left out that I can't even keep going with since they aren't letting anyone in. I have a personal theory... But meh. I also feel that if I'm right, we're fucked and we aren't going to be able to do much."
"Greeeat. So I finally land a dream job and it may not even last long. Just my luck."
Rosalie sighed and crossed her arms, looking out the window.
"My armor is in there, it's part of why I was accepted to the league at all. Hope no one messes with it to much, she's still a prototype. Don't even have an AI in her yet."
Rosalie pulled out her phone to scroll through her texts. Nothing in a few days. From anyone, even her friends from before she moved up here weren't talking to her anymore. And now it seemed like it all might be for not.
"For whatever it's worth, I hope we aren't fucked, whether you mean NEC, Hero League, New York, or so on. Whatever happened it sounds like someone was trying to sabotage the NEC, and may have succeeded. A big enough company could survive this, but it's going to hurt."
"I'm not saying anything definitively, just saying that this might be a case of someone working in the experimental wing fucking with something they shouldn't have and causing way bigger problems that they didn't forsee coming, problems that we already sort of anticipated and took steps to prevent. But it only takes one or two dumbasses fucking with how things are supposed to be for everything to go to shit," Shayla continued, semi-frustrated, before calming down a bit as she pulled up at the restaurant.
"Might head to one of our satellite offices later today to check that out and look into it more. Actually it's not far from where I grew up, Yonkers," she added, stepping out and opening the door for Rosalie.
"I have no clue where that is. I'm from California, was at MIT for awhile but....things didn't work out."
Rosalie climbed out and looked up at the Greasy Spoon, a little tucked away burger joint that didn't look like it got a ton of traffic, let alone any from sports car drivers. She pushed open and found a clean, older styled diner, with pie on the counter and everything. She chose a booth, so they could have a measure of privacy as they kept talking.
"Was supposed to have been here a few days ago, but a flight got rescheduled and I had to change terminals, and then I was stuck in limbo at the airport for a few days. It was a nightmare."
"Ugh. New York City airports, not sure anyone is that big of a fan of them," said Shayla, stepping inside the diner and looking over the menu. "I guess I'll have whatever you're having, I suppose," she said, looking up with a slight smile. "And it's on me, too. You need something good going your way after these last past few days, and I need to repay you for distracting me from this work."
"That might not be the best idea, the same as me part."
Rosalie smiled slyly before putting in her order.
"One habanero burger, hold the tomatoes, a side of fries, a chocolate shake, and a cherry pie."
She turned to Shayla and grinned. The pie had been the cherry on top, what she had been real excited for was somewhere that had a habanero burger on the menu. Not many places this far north carried them, seemed it was on of this joints specialty items, and it had good reviews in of itself.
"That is unless you think you can handle the burn. Otherwise reviews said they have a good grilled chicken platter."
Rosalie put her phone to the side, she wasn't going to use it here. She just wanted to talk.
"So...."
Starting a conversation was always hard.
"What made you decide on the career path?"
"I'll take the chicken, then. Never been one for super spicy stuff," said Shayla, before turning her attention to Rosalie's latest question. That was... Well, the answer to the question was one that went back quite a long time. Messing with tech and the like wasn't something new for her, she was experienced at it and had been doing it since she was just a kid. Before she even knew what eveyrthing she was messing with was.
"I've always done stuff with tech, this was a way I could do it and have someone else pay me for it while providing me with the parts I need. That, and I won't get arrested like I did the time I sent a rocket into the Hudson river just to prove that I could do it," she said sheepishly, slightly embarrassed at her humble beginnings. "As far as the Hero League and the NEC, they just happened to make the most competitive offers."
"I'm kind of a free spirit, I guess," she added. "I like working for places that will help me with what I'm doing without controlling me too much."
"A rocket? Into the Hudson? Hahahaha. What got me noticed at all was....I blew up my old deans car with a combination of a potato cannon and a jetpack. Looooong story, but I hadn't calibrated the potato cannon right and well.....it exploded."
Rosalie looked down a little sheepishly at the last thing. It had been an accident of course, but her dean had been convinced she had tried to kill him. Even got cops involved, thankfully her own meticulous not taking and videos of testing showed it was an accident, but it was a long annoying process that still ended up in her leaving college..
"Parents weren't happy about that, my mother hasn't even talked to me sense then, and that was over a year ago."
"Sometimes it takes awhile for things to work out with parents. I guess mine are kind of fine with me right now, but they were pissed the fuck off when I dropped out of Georgia Tech because I felt like doing other stuff and didn't like the weather. Pretty sure they assumed I was some kind of deadbeat slacker until NEC gave me a chance and they realized I was going to be working with big companies," shrugged Shayla, chuckling. "And from there, things only picked up. The Hero League approached me after I was already on the design team at NEC."
"They approached me about the same time, once I got my armor working. NEC was about a week ahead of the League, but that's close enough to say they were probably considering it about the same time."
Rosalie looked over at the counter wondering how long their food would take, she was actually kind of hungry.
"But then my mother never wanted me to do any of this, she wanted me to be a quiet trophy wife with a rich husband, was pissed when I brought my first girlfriend home. Even more pissed when I told her I had no intention of just lazing around drinking like her."
"Don't think mine wanted me to do this kind of thing until they realized I can make actual money with it. But like I said, I have no idea what they really think these days. Not always the best with managing relationships and the like, I'm good with people but only... Up to a certain extent," said Shayla. "I'll show you around NEC's satellite office I guess, since you aren't going to get to see the one here for awhile. It's not as impressive, but like I said, I need to check out a few projects there for my investigation into this."
"Sounds fun, be nice to see something while I'm separated from my armor."
Rosalie perked up as the waitress came out...with only the chicken. She slumped back down as Shayla got her food and drink, and she had to keep waiting.
"I'm...not good with people. Every girlfriend, and the two boyfriends I've had made the move with me, and eventually dropped me because I had a hard time telling when, and what to say. I always seemed to say the worst things, or not notice I needed to say anything at all. So I dropped the dating scene two years ago, focused on my work instead. Made some friends, but they haven't talked to me since I headed up here so don't know how much longer I can say that. New city, new friends I guess, if I can make more."
Rosalie laughed a little bitterly at the end, knowing full well she probably would, but had little faith in her ability to keep them..
"You might find some decent friends around the NEC if the office ever opens again, it's a pretty small company in terms of total people. I'm pretty familiar with the CEO in fact, and all the other top designers. Might help to be around like minded people, but hey... It's not always the worst thing in the world to keep to yourself sometimes," Shayla said. "Heavens knows how much time I've spent alone working on stuff, I'm still working on this armor prototype of my own before I send the final version into St. Eden for them to look at putting it into production."
"Mine....well it itself won't ever be made into production. It's tailored very specifically for my....powers, and no one else I've ever heard of could use the majority of the systems because of it. Of course, many other things I put into it I'm testing for actual production models. Like the armor transformation system, and some of my own tweaks to the HUD and the like. Still gotta get an AI for it though, I can use it just fine without one, but it's better to have one."
Rosalie sat up, beaming as her food was finally sat down in front of her. Picking up the burger, she took a good sized bite, relishing the taste even as her cheeks turned red from the heat.
"Oh my god, that is delicious. I didn't realize how much I missed this kind of burger till I took the bite."
"Should try the ES-7 or the ES-8 body armor, you're getting the same stuff that'll eventually be used by some of the biggest organizations around. The Hero League, potentially special forces, that kind of thing. Make something for yourself and you've got to come up with every feature and fix everything for yourself. Rely on something with big funding behind it and you get a lot more support - There's AI integration, the same kind of HUD that the military is looking into, it's electronic warfare capable, and has some EMP resistance due to the backup electronics systems. The ES-8, of course, is the heavier model. More physical protection and all that. Hard to beat it in melee either," Shayla said, getting distracted enough by the conversation that she hadn't touched her food.
"Then again, I'm kind of biased when it comes to this whole thing. That's what I've been working on, my 'M' version of the ES-7 is the prototype version that they're trying out different features. It's with me right now in a way, actually... AI system that I'm using happens to be wired to my watch," she added, slightly embarrassed.
"My suit has most of those features, or at least something with comparable quality. Haven't been able to test the HUD with AI yet, but on paper at least it's comparable. Then I still have the Mk. II and Mk. IIIs, a medium and heavy respectively, to finish designing. The big thing for me is that getting something synced up with my powers requires making it from the ground up, and that means normal models aren't near as efficient for me as an identical production model."
Rosalie ate a couple of fries and chewed quietly as she considered what they were talking about. Swallowing, she took a drink from her shake before continuing.
"I've not messed with much AI anything in general, so I've been a little wary about integrating one finally, especially as it should be made custom like the rest of the armor. Thankfully NEC was supposed to help me with that end of things while I was working on other projects. One of which was supposedly seeing about getting the Folding Armor System to where it can be used in production models. Allowing for more compact storage, or something like that. I wasn't paying to much attention about the business side of things."
"Different schools of design, I suppose. Don't really believe in making things from the ground up because of the reasons I stated but, well... I guess not everyone thinks that. I've seen a lot of others like you, with gear custom fitted for them. It's the superhero school of thought I guess. But that's not the one that I came from, I've worked with the defense industry longer than I've worked with the Hero League," said Shayla, and the conversation continued down that path. They talked about design aspects, different features, technical details... Wasn't surprising, it was one of the things both of them were confident when it came to talking about.
They talked until they finished eating at which point Shayla looked at her phone and stood up, gesturing back towards the door and the street outside. "They want you at the Hero League HQ at some point today to fill out some more stuff. You know, paperwork and all, for joining the team. I have some stuff to work on there, too, being one of the main engineers. But tomorrow I'll take you out to the office in Yonkers and have you meet someone? Just don't come without a gun, it'll put my mind at ease."
"Okay, I have a few guns I could choose from, want me to bring something small or something with some kick?"
Rosalie talked as she stacked their plates, what unfinished food there was on the top plate, and put a twenty dollar tip on the table for the waitress. Was a bit much, but Rosalie didn't have much cash on her and nothing smaller, so it'd work. Probably be nice for the waitress to. Standing, Rosalie stretched and yawned.
"Never liked paperwork much, but you gotta do it to get things down so why not. Probably have to fill some out just to get all my stuff that went to the compound . Anyway, thanks for the lunch. Made my day a little better."