Turn 1

--- Maya ---

Despite having a fair number of parts left over after chipping away at her battery issue, she’d noticed she was starting to run low on electronic parts, or at least lower than she’d like.

As such she found herself in a part of the house she’d been gaining increasing familiarity with over the past few weeks, the basement. One of the two places all homes tended to store their lost and forgotten properties over time.

It was also the one where she was most likely to find the discarded phones and handheld consoles of yesteryear. Such as the phone her older sister Vivianna had thrown out when she’d gotten the latest model for her birthday, or the broken laptop that had been cheaper for her dad to replace than repair.

(Yes, I think I can work with these...)

---

(You know we really shouldn’t dismiss the lesser gangs…) Her saner self-warned as they browsed through a number of police reports that were (mildly)/(extremely) illegal for her to be reading.

“But they don’t have the resources to find and kidnap me remember?” She reminded herself, not bothering to keep her speech to her thoughts since Izzy was out to one of her martial arts meets, leaving her with free reign of the room for the day.

Now normally she’d use this time for her games or other hobbies-

(I guess it technically counts as reading.)

(Shut up!)

-but given her recent kidnapping she was forced to do something a little more practical-

(Video games help with hand eye coordination!)

(And they’re fun!)

(Will you two quit interrupting me?!)

(…)

(…)

(Now then…)

Given her recent kidnapping, she was forced to do something a little more immediately practical. -(Thank you!)-

And as such, she was instead spending this time to investigate the criminal element of aaa, in the dire hopes of figuring out which organization was responsible for kidnapping her and in turn threatening the wellbeing of her family.

From the reports she could get her hands on, there were currently three gangs in her city that could be considered something resembling an actual criminal organization, rather than just a handful of small-time thugs.

Of those three, the largest threat to the city was probably a gang called the Gamer’s Guild, or the GG for short. They were a group led by a mysterious Wonderlander going by the alias of GM to her followers. Essentially she used her wonderland to drag monsters into reality for her Party to fight, and upon beating them she’d then use the left-over energy to grant them powers that she could strip them of whenever she pleased.

“Honestly, this is probably what we’d do if we were a Wonderlander.”

(Yep.)

(Yep.)

(Yep.)

Still despite any similarities in style that may be shared, the Party caused constant damage to public property and civilians as they publicly fought these monsters. Sometimes even going so far as to loot whichever location their fight took place in.

“And since almost every member has powers, that makes them a special kind of dangerous…” She admitted, even her ego being intimidated by the prospect of fighting an entire gang of Masks.

(True, but it also means they probably lack the technological prowess to track us down.)

(So, why hasn’t Sanctuary gone after these guys?)

“They have,” She noted scrolling through the various reports in front of her. “But since they’re empowered criminals rather than actual Deviants, their jurisdiction is… limited apparently.”

(Wonderful…) Her inner logic remarked with suitable sarcasm. (And what about the other two gangs, any chance they’re responsible?)

Changing to a different set of reports and news clippings, she pulled up the next major power in the city, an Arcane group who referred to themselves as the Covenant. “Who seem like an underground magic cult or something. And aside from distributing a bunch of black-market goods and a owning a couple of fight clubs, they don’t really seem to have much going on crime wise…”

(Don’t most cults have kidnappings?) Her wilder side asked curiously, while making a surprisingly good point.

She considered it for a moment before shaking her head. “Yeah, no I don’t think it’s that kind of cult. It’s looks like it’s less ‘religious’ cult, and more ‘secret society’ cult.”

(It makes sense given the recent rise of Arcane in both heroics and law enforcement.)

(That and magic is cool!) Her inner child added with enthusiasm.

“Bah, magic is just a branch of science we don’t understand yet.” She argued rather cynically for the usually optimistic girl, before rolling her eyes. “We know magic is real, and it’s an esoteric energy. Hell, some colleges teach it. I just think calling it ‘magic’ is stupid. I mean do you think anyone would take the Arcane seriously if they started calling themselves ‘wizards.’”

(Oh, you’re a wizard Maya.)

“I’d be a witch.” She corrected, as she began pulling up files on the third gang of influence. “And only after I hack reality and make it my bitch.”

(I believe that is the point of magic.)

Ignoring the voice in her head, she found that the last notable criminal organization of her city, was a relatively new group the police were referring to as the ‘South Market Enforcers.’ “Which doesn’t make much sense, given how they’re based nowhere near the market district…”

(That is curious…)

(What kind of fun are they up to?)

“It looks like they’re mostly into dealing drugs and weapons. Basically, if you can’t get it from the Covenant, then these guys are probably selling it.”

(Does that include human trafficking?)

She skimmed through a few more reports before taking note of something interesting. “No, I don’t think so… They actually seem to flee from anything resembling direct conflict or attention. In fact, the only time they seem to run deals is when another Mask is causing trouble nearby. The police have seen them active, but they haven’t been able to make any actual busts at those times because helping with the Masks take priority.”

(That sounds suspiciously convenient.)

“Cops think so too…” She noted, before pulling up a few of the files on the cases. “Well, that’s interesting. Most of these guys are random non-powered civilians…”

(Then how can they be Masks?)

“I don’t know…” She read a few reports both toxicology and interviews alike, “Huh, someone is creating a drug that gives temporary superpowers apparently.”

(I’m guessing that insanity is a side-effect of that drug.)

“Yeah, they’re passing the drugs out to the homeless, who then gain powers and go off on rampages after a few hits.”

(During which they have the perfect distraction for their elicit deals.)

She ran a hand down her face, it was a smart plan. A brutal, cruel, and manipulative plan. But still a smart plan.

(Um, if none of these guys are into kidnapping or M.A.D.s then which one kidnapped us?)

“None of them, any of them, all of them…” She offered, completely unsure herself, and as she looked over the numerous pages and reports still open, she couldn’t help but sigh.

“Either way, we’ve got our work cut out for us.”

---

Since she was already on her computer, she decided to do what was becoming a bit of a habit, and work through her feelings brought about by her research into the city’s criminal element. After all she still had the room to herself for a few hours, so she figured now was a good enough time to begin coding the next program she’d been thinking of.

You see, in a number of video games there is one UI tool that had been a staple of games for years, one that was responsible for helping players find and seek out their goals, even going so far as to mark their enemies locations in some games. And while some games were beginning to make them an optional element for the more hardcore gamers, it didn’t change the fact that the map -and it’s mini- version- were some of the most useful tools in gaming.

(And we want one!)

(Yes, we’re getting to that.)

Originally, she’d had very few ideas on how to implement her idea without building some scanners for her COMP, but after her escape she’d discovered a work around that while not the ideal of what she wanted was still pretty damn close.

By hacking into internet mapping software -as well as a few satellites- she was able to create her own version of a GPS map for COMP, one that displayed all the nearby buildings and what they looked like as of the last satellite photographs.

Now on its own this was already useful tech that she could use to find her way around easier, it was also something any mediocre phone with an internet connection could pull off.

(And we are not mediocre!)

(Damn straight!)

This was why despite making a fair amount of progress, she still considered her mapping program unfinished. (For now…)

Unfortunately for her desire to finish her program as soon as possible however, she had several symptoms of ADHD, one of which made her grow extremely bored of working on the same program for hours and hours on end.

Which led to her starting up a second completely different program, rather than finishing the one she started.

(Hey, don’t judge me! I’m giving our AI an upgrade for being a good boy.)

(Such a good boy! Yes, he is. Yes, he is!)

Still, after all of the good work it had done in aiding her escape she figured upgrading her loyal AI to be a little more intelligent wouldn’t hurt. What’s more thanks to the fact that she’d already coded all of the harder bits into her AI back when she’d first designed it, she was capable of increasing the number of orders it could chain together by two!

Or she would be as soon as she got it to quit recalling after each order and then immediately darting out to do the next one on the list. Something that instead of using less power to get things done like she’d intended, was actually burning through her power supply (three times faster! Really, you artificial asshole?!)

Needless to say, she was not happy about this.