Happenings of New Congress

The Doctor gently took hold of Ileana's hand and turned it until he thought he had learned as much as he could with just his eyes. Such imperfect scientific instrument Evolution had given the human race. It reminded him a little of when he had examined Vasilisa's arm. Ileana's gift seemed to work on the molecular scale though. Perhaps even submolecular...he couldn't be sure without a proper analysis. This could prove to be one of the most difficult problems he had ever solved. Any notes this surrogate mother might've made would also be worth getting his hands on. If she was a noteworthy scientist it shouldn't be very difficult to track her down. Unlike himself, other scientist had the habit of publishing their finds in a vain attempt at attaining glory. Admiration from lesser minds wasn't something Dr. Damnation was interested in. There was no sport in that.

As Ileana spoke he mentally recorded every word, comparing them to his own theories and hypotheses. He watched as the curious metal disappeared into her skin again. It left no trace. It seemed like the most immediate problems he had foreseen were solved. Of course, they would have to be for her to be sitting across the tabel from him alive. Meta-humans usually needed a lot of luck to stay alive. Powers didn't always combine well with being alive. "Unprecedented indeed." He said, nodding. "There are comparable cases but nothing like...you."

Aleksander put his free hand over his mouth and stared thoughfully at the wall behind Ileana. He almost jumped when Decoh suddenly shouted and Aleksander released the woman's hand. "Amazing." He whispered before turning to Desmond and speaking in his normal voice. ""Would I lie to you?"

In the corner of his eyes Aleksander could see Binary's hand move a little and almost immediately something opened in the wall. Was it a command of some kind or...was she somehow able to signal the computernetwork with her brain? If she was functioning in the way he suspected she did that would be a possibility. The flame of excitement in him flared again when he considered the impliations. "Truly amazing."

After meeting with the Doctor that Friday, the week drug on for Vasilisa, as she sort of faded back into the world. She kept little contact with the outside, but wouldn't pass up a chance to see any of the heroes. However, she did it from afar, in his 'disguse'. She wanted to keep in touch with them. But on normal terms. She didn't fancy herself a hero. Nor did she want to be one.... She in particular kept an eye out for the Alex, but just as soon as the doctor had appeared, he had vanished. Vasilisa would've called him, or even tried to track him using the local law enforcment's lines. But she knew that it was absolutely futile. He knew a way out of everything, it so seemed.

She would finally give up, even searching for him on the confines of the net. Or she might even call up some favors she had back with the Russian Spetsnaz.... She was seemingly drawn to his...wit, and she wouldn't call it charm exactly, but he was quite the character. She wanted to get to know him better, as odd enough as that sounded to her. But she would make sure to keep an eye out for the Good Doctor.

Desmond heard Alex and Ileana saying something to him but he was too wrapped up in his food... He should cook more often. He shifted to the side and just as he did so he was hit in the head by... the wall? "Ow..." The hero looked over to where he got hit and there stood his get out of jail free card. "Finally," he breathed with a sigh of relief.

Desmond took the phone from out of the compartment and examined it, turning the phone around and screwing his face into all types of weird contortions. It was very shiny.. and sleek.. and buttonless.. with no "flip" feature.... He sighed disappointedly and shot his sister a quick "damn.." look. He knew Ileana was making sure her younger brother wouldn't screw up this time. She knew he was not a fan of technology and now he actually had to take care of it or the house would be his enemy. He had better learn how to use that phone quickly... And find some sort of impenetrable case for it. Damn...

The hero stopped dwelling on the negative, though. At least he could leave the house again, he hadn't been out to his favorite place in awhile. Things were looking up... Now to go find the instruction manual to the phone.. after dinner was over, he didn't want to be rude. He placed the phone back in the compartment and resumed eating. Looking towards the doctor, "So Ileana's weird, huh?" He laughed, "with the metal skin and whatnot? Probably why she likes it so cold.."

"Yes, that explains everything." Dr. Damnation said with a slight smile before putting the last piece of the steak in his mean. He savored every chew before swallowing it. "And I'm sure we could all be considered odd in our own way. We are only meta-human after all."

Aleksander glanced in Desmond's direction, briefly considering leaving all the Science talk out of the converstion for his sake. Then he reminded himself that 'Science waits for nobody' and forgot about the ridiculous notion.

"I must ask, Ileana, what are your experiences with Synthetic Intelligence?" He asked innocently. "I have a couple of autonomous mechanical drones worked out but I haven't had the time to code something which will utilize their functions efficiently. I've coded some AI's back in the day but those allow a lot of shortcuts which aren't possible with SI's and their applications were a lot more specific. I could send you some rough blueprints of the design but I'm afraid I can't let the exact specifications leave my laboratory. You'll have to read them there if you're interested. I'd hate to see them fall in the wrong hands."

"Now that I think about it though, giving the bad guys some more precise and subtle weaponry might prevent a lot of collatoral damage." The Doctor thought out loud. "Maybe I should consider it after all."

"I'm joking." He eventually admitted.

Ileana barely resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at her brother. "I happen to like it cold because I am a human and as a human, I enjoy claiming my evolutionary right to such advancements as air conditioning," she told him loftily. "So shove it, swiss cheese."

Ileana considered Alex's question carefully, taking a sip of her water while she thought. "SI..." she murmured, "There's some tricky shit. I have a good few AI programs myself running on my network that monitor the firewalls, organize searches, you know, stuff like that. I've made my own attempts at it, the closest I got was this mutating program, it mimicked evolution well, but in the end, I wasn't able to coax it into self-awareness. I've been playing around with the idea of a series of these AIs and having each transfer the information to the other, you know, to mimic teaching. It's all theoretical though..."

She took a moment to consider his offer. If his blueprints took him any closer than hers did, the oppurtunity was almost painful to pass up. Plus, she had a feeling that Dr. Damnation had any number of fascinating blueprints in his lab. Ileana had always had to be careful around other scientists in order to protect her identity. The chance to allow her mind free reign, and possibly to be matched was enticing. And if he tried anything funny, he still have no clue how fast she could be. She could probably punch him in the nose before he could say "Science made me do it".

"I'm sure we can work something out," she said aloud, grinning.

"I'm sure we will." The Doctor said, nodding thoughtfully. "Science always finds a way...or at least scientists usually do."

"My own research was much more focused on creating an...instant intelligence." He said, recalling all the relevant research files. "It always seemed to me that this simulated evolution would take too long, if it was going to give results at all. But...maybe...if we take a sort of...base model which we force through the process until we have something we can work with...yes that might be something."

"Of course," Aleksander made a motion as if to say 'c'est la vie'. ", getting the exact definition of 'self-aware' and 'conscious' down is already tricky in and of itself. Two geniuses like us might be able to come to a reasonable conclusion though. If that doesn't work we could just try winging it until we have something that resembles what we wanted to see. It's not very scientific but it works...sometimes." He smiled at the irony of his own words. It would be foolish to deny his own shortcomings though. Besides, if they sometimes gave results could they really be considered shortcomings? It was open for discussion, for as far as he was concerned.

"By the way," He said as if he was quoting the expression. ", I don't have to explain to you that there's no such thing as 'evolutionary right', right?"