> > It's the first time Anna has learned to be more precise and less deadly.
>
> At some point that would be a good thing to illustrate in a narrative.
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At some point, perhaps. At the very least, Anna likes Griffin mostly because he's one of the few people she met who isn't secretly afraid of her. She can tell, even if they don't mean her to.
> > Sounds like Visionary has a babysitter. A multi-billion dollar babysitter with deadly lasers. I'm sure Drury will love that.
>
> Drury's a reasonable guy within the limits of his own background and understanding. He's not always a big fan of superheroes (he's the guy who gets to clean up their messes) and he's paranoid as a survival method, but he's also quite a straight joe, a good guy given a job that calls on him to wade through a lot of crap and do things he hates sometimes.
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Noted.
> That means that if he's reacting so strongly to Anna then he knows or thinks he knows something to justify it. He won't be covering his own ass but he might be covering someone else's by order. He might know things about Anna even she doesn't. It's the basis for a good long-running intrigue/espionage thriller.
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Or maybe he just believes she was created as a killing machine, and he doesn't believe she can change what she was designed for. It's like Dr. Rotengen (is he the living radiation guy?) deciding to settle down and raise a family in normal society. As long as Anna is essentially a living weapon, Drury won't trust her. The only reason why he lets Anna stay with the Lair Legion is because they're pretty much used to having living weapons around.
> > The spoilers box definitely has a reason this time: I've implied before that Anna's creator is dead. That would be why no more Anna's have been built - because the builder was an Al B Harper class genius, Anna is the prototype, and perhaps nobody has quite figured out yet how he did it.
> > Of course the question then is how did he die? Is the blood on Anna's hands or SPUD's, or some outside agent who didn't want SPUD to have a technological advantage?
>
> First off, does the scientist have to be a He? I ask only because we have plenty of male mad scientists running around, but only two female ones, Dr Moo specialising in biotech and Rikka Ulz Hagen, specialist in robotics and artifical intelligence (the relative of WW2 scientist Dr Vizhnar who may have built Visionary if he's fake, and who later created HAGGIE and HALLIE). There's also the Idiom but she isn't exactly a villain and she has a much broader range of general know-how.
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The scientist could be anyone. The only facts are that Anna's creator is a genius and is no longer around to question.
> To distinguish from these I'd suggest that the scientist you're thinking of might come from a different angle - not neccessarily a computer scientist so much as a psychologist/mathematician/logic specialist. A real mental button-pusher. That fits with your idea that something beyond the mere tech happened with Anna.
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Most likely it's a genius engineer with education in psychology and physics, and a real passion for highly advanced robotics and logic processors. If you give someone like that cutting edge tools and an unlimited budget you're sure to see something spectacular.
Remember, originally even Al B Harper couldn't figure out exactly how Anna's brain works, though he understood it. Obviously this other genius made some kind of simple breakthrough that nobody else has figured out yet. If he or she is dead, it's like one act of violence setting back technology for decades.
Or it could be like in Wargames, where the scientist was forced to move far away and become anonymous to avoid violent retribution from the govt - because they blame him or her for creating something that turned on them and escaped. But that scientist would still believe it his or her best creation.
> > It also raises questions. Nobody really is sure if her brain was intended to work that way, especially since in a military environment a robot or android that obeys is more important than one that can make important ethical decisions on its own. It may be a malfunction, or the creator may have disobeyed orders to pursue his own agenda.
>
> There's a huge black ops backstory here that will make a great adventure in its own right.
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There have already been pieces of it when the Destruct-O-Bots came for Anna. Still nobody really knows who sent them or why. It could have been SPUD, it could have been some other contracted govt organization or recovery organization, or it could simply have been some super-villain who wants to disassemble Anna and figure out how to make more.
Though ironically, Anna's build wouldn't be terribly useful to a super-villain, since she thinks so independently and can judge things for herself. Same reason SPUD considers her a failure.
> > The tech division that created Anna had its equipment physically destroyed by her during her escape. After that, I presume they either went underground or had their budget cut off because of that embarrassing incident.
>
> Enquiring minds want to know.
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Only Drury knows.
> > And yes, the extreme response was most likely to cover up the existence of Anna. The only reason Drury allowed the Lair Legion to take her in is most likely because their fairly secretive, so Anna won't get out into the public anyhow. And because he's afraid of a confrontation with them while SPUD's own secret weapon is against them.
>
> There's also the horrific possibility that all of this, even Anna's "escape", is part of their agenda.
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Or someone's agenda. Maybe the scientist who built her.
> > > The other thing that's missing is an understanding of why the Land That Common Sense Forgot is still there.
> > Maybe Liu Xi will figure that out.
>
> She's one major trauma off getting to any truth yet.
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All these extra traumas will mean more suffering for the Void Scholar later.
