2013.05.25 - Taking the robo-bait

The castle is a well known attraction, lots of people come to see it but lately there have been rumors of something haunting the castle. People see a shadowy form in robes dashing down the hallways out of the corner of their eye but it's gone before they have a chance to look. There are rumors of that late at night from the depths of the tourist attraction the sound of metal grinding can be heard but no one knows why. Entire tour groups of people have had valuables stolen from them. The M.O. is always the same. They see a dark robed figure rushing towards them seemingly from no where then there is a flash of light and by the time they can see again they are missing electronics. The 'Wraith' seems to dislike cellular phones, cameras and such because they have been found in various places in the castle broken and taken apart then left in piles of scrap. Psychic investigators even shot a local TV show about it and while they caught nothing on film, their van was stripped clean while they were inside. Even the radio was stolen and one of the tires. People say it was most likely just a gang but what if it wasn't? What if there really is a ghost in the castle? What if it's just a petty thief using some kind of gimmick? Shouldn't someone awesome come and find out for sure before the thefts get someone hurt?

"I know it's not Corvis," Gregor begins, glancing over to the man walking at his side. "I mean, unless he's scraping the bottom of the barrel and getting really interested in collecting seven thousand LexPods. This is a favour to a friend; that's all. One of my students. It's probably just a little gang, but I'd rather not be wandering around here /all night/, and if I get jumped, I'd rather have backup." He flashes a quick and winning smile at his friend as he pulls out a crank-powered survival flashlight, walking up toward the castle and gazing up at the place. Not bad.

Dressed in his black uniform, Zack's moving quiet. The concept of a Wraith on the loose here was not something that the teenager wanted to hear. His glasses were left behind so that he could see as clearly as possible. He's currently pressed against the wall of the castle as he tries to move silently. A rapier at his hip, the teenager moves slowly and carefully. The last thing he needs is to get caught by one of those stupid tabloid shows. They were the bane of existence. Like any self-respecting creature or being of magic would allow themselves to be caught on tape by those fools.

And Torbin Rins looks like he's being dragged along by a hook attached to his bellybutton. His hands are stuffed in the pocket of a hoodie, but he comes along regardless. "Fine. We'll investigate your electronic phantom, but you owe me for this." Which might mean a drink, it might mean chasing down a lead, or it might mean a night at the karaoke bar. One can never tell when an alien mind is involved.

Iron Man is out cruising, but not in a car. He's working on a new iteration of his armor, this one the Mark VIII. It's past prototype and into practical usage but still shaking bugs out. That's what this cruise around the city is for. He's flying low near the park, when he decides to buzz by, barely cutting above the treetops. That's when his AI alerts him - "Sir," JARVIS says, "I'm detecting a large amount of electromagnetic interference coming from Belvedere Castle within the park. Nothing that would affect us, but it might be affect lower level devices and networks."

"Well, let's take a look JARVIS. You know how much I love solving mysteries. I'd be lost without my Boswell."

The castle itself is fairly unchanged, the city is debating closing it down because they sent in a team of cops to clean it out, and entire swat force and they searched it top to bottom finding nothing but strange scrape marks, a few discarded piles of junk. What the public is largely unaware of is that one officer was pulled into a room then locked inside it while his follow officers weren't looking. The room was dark and the officer reported a single white orb floating in the air like a ball of light that made it hard for him to see what was happening, then something lifted him off the ground and his tactical vest was ripped off of him. Then the round mysterious light flashed brighter and he was blinded for a moment before he was pushed out of the dark room and back into the hallway. By the time they bashed the thick wooden door open the room was empty.

Now, anyone who has bothered to do research on the castle will know that there are hidden passageways that the servants used to come and go unseen. Anyone who know anything about the design of old castles would also be able to deduce that this 'Wraith' was most likely using these old abandoned passageways to have the run of the castle.

Iron Man's armor will also detect a strong electromagnetic field deep in one of the subbasements of the castle. Electrical cables have been ran from the light posts under ground and into the castle interior. Someone is pulling a lot of juice to a hidden chamber deep under the castle. The castle itself is pulling a great deal more electricity from the city than it should be late at night. Something is defiantly down there.. but what?

As they continue into the dark, Gregor starts the crank on his flashlight whirring into life. Someone actually paying attention might notice that it seems to be going on its own, which is... not typically how those work, but whatever. "You'll have fun, mate," he replies to Torbin's grumbles. "Trust me on that." He himself is looking for secret passages or the like, places with hidden doors or something of that nature. It seems like the most likely way to -- ah. "Not /incredibly/ hidden," he goes on, pausing at a wooden panel in a too-thick wall and giving it a good shove.

Holding his palm out flat Zack whispers softly and a soft sphere of light lifts out his outstretched palm and up into the air casting a light similar to that of a flashlight. He's not making too much effort to hide his magic since he's pretty sure there's no one around where he's at. Growing up in Britain and attending some of the older schools, Zack is used to trying to find the secret passages, some were even been there when the places were built. Of course he's probably going to end up close to Gregor and Torbin in not too long.

Once they're out of sight of casual passers-by, Torbin runs a hand over the device on his wrist, which lights up and casts a beam forward. He also produces a small (but extremely high-tech) scanner. "It's probably just an infestation of Grobags. A canister full of marsh spray'll take care of them." A beat, "You do have Grobags on this planet, don't you?" Ahh, the culture gap. He also pauses to sniff the air.

JARVIS pipes up, "Sir. I am detecting an inordinately large electromagnetic field deep within the castle. It appears to be pulling power from hijacked grid lines that were appropriated from now defunct public lighting." there's a beat pause, "The wattage at its current consumption is far beyond anything pedestrian. I suggest we investigate."

Tony is reading the scans being fed to is HUD - "Well," Tony says, "it's easier to pay for repairs than to ask permission." he pulls up a schematic of the castle, "Let's knock lightly, shall we?"

Iron Man literally streaks down from the sky, does a couple of lazy laps around the the castle before shooting about eight stories above it, before going 180 and smashing through the roof, landing himself in a three point stance somewhere at the top floor.

Yeah, subtlety is TOTALLY Tony's forte.

The hidden passages are for the most part unused by humans. Dusty, dirty, filled with spider webs and creepy crawly things except for the floors. Someone, or something has been walking on the floors in the back passages. If our intrepid explorers know anything about tracking they can tell that the wide swath of dust pushed off to the sides of the hall way are from the robes of the 'Wraith' dragging along the ground and there are more strange grooves something heavy was dragged through one of the main passage ways leading into to a spiral stair case made of stone that leads down deep into the belly of the castle.

If Iron Man scanned into that old chamber which the young explorers are quickly converging on as they all walk towards the same spiral stair case, he will notice a thermal pocket. The room has a square area that scans as some kind of small stone room with a thick door is a balmy five degrees inside it. The cold is spilling out into the rest of the room where there are a multitude of smaller heat and electromagnetic signals. The electrical system seems to be split. A small portion of the electricity going to the network of the smaller devices and a large potion of the power going to the cold chamber.

As the explorers get deeper and deeper into the castle closer to the spiral stair case they hear something very unexpected for a ghost, a local radio station is playing Pappa Roach - Last Resort from the bottom of the stairs as well as several different TV and a police scanner.. at least until Tony crashes through the roof and created a massive ruckus. Then the sounds from below all start to shut off. So the question is, investigate the TV or the big boom from upstairs.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that there's some robed figure wafting around down here. "Someone's wandering around in a Snuggie, maybe," Gregor murmurs before glancing back to Rins. "Grobags? No. Not on this planet. Nor marsh spray. For a super intelligent alien from the future, you don't half have funny ideas -- " That's more or less when he sees a light bobbing along behind them and when he /hears/ a sudden crash from above. They've just now reached that sudden cold pocket and he almost curses again, startled at the change in temperature. "So. Subtlety and stealth. Who's bad at that again?" (Answer: most of the superhero community)

So while he was prepared to investigate the sudden crashing of something through the roof and down into the building does make Zack begin running but rather than run away from the sound, he's running towards it. Ok. So maybe he's not the best at that whole if something comes crashing in, it's probably a good thing to begin heading in the OTHER direction. Running full tilt through the maze of corridors lit only using the light as a guide, Zack's heading to check the sound more than the Wraith now.

"Definitely not Grobags. Not ghosts either. I've got power spikes on the high end of the..." And then the big ba-da-boom. Rins looks up at the ceiling and raises an arm. He's about to give his suggestion for which way to go, when the device on his arm starts to sound a shrill alarm. He curses in some language that's not of this planet and checks the readings. "I've got a hit on the leaked energy signature from one of Corvis' bombs. Sorry, man. The Grobag hunt has to wait." He lifts a hand towards a button on his belt and pauses long enough to touch Gregor on the shoulder, look him in the eye and very earnestly say, "Don't die." And then fwip, he disappears in a swirl of light. You're on your own, Britsy.

The problem with being in a large suit of metal armor is that you don't really fit in confined spaces and the floors of old castles creek dangerously under your weight. Tony can easily scan the walls and find an entrance to the secret walk ways or he can just blast his way through the floors and take the direct approach. His sensors can most likely defect three life forms in the hidden passage ways around him. One of them small enough to just be a kid running towards him and then there is a spatial disturbance like a teleport and one of them is gone... Kids with teleporters it's no street gang, that's for sure!

At the bottom of the spiral stair case new sounds start resonating up through the stone walls, a sound like a rapid mixing. Someone is making pina-colada?

JARVIS doesn't even need to point out the temperature shift, the fact that it's leeching out of the chamber it's in, or the fact that a bunch of stuff including Papa Roach just got turned off. "JARVIS, start piecing together what needs that much energy and that much cold. Let's see what we're dealing with." - he rises to both feet, and begins to find the stairs to head down towards the signatures he's picking up. "Sir, I'm reading three..make that two lifesigns. One just simply disappeared." to which Tony responds, "Great. Either the Star Trek convention's in town or one of the mutants are involved. Let's head down and get a fix on things." and begins to maneuver down towards where people are converging.

So that little light that was bobbing behind them? Suddenly bobbing in the other direction. And when Torbin Rins suddenly bamfs away, the retired agent is standing there in horrified irritation. "You /SNAKE/!" he hisses, casting through the darkness -- but he knows the alien is gone. Great. Just great. "Don't die," he mutters, turning back the way he came. There was a light up there, which means /someone/ was up there. The crashing was pretty indicative, too, so he's moving back up to the head of the stairs where Tony and Zack seem to be meeting up. The flashlight in his hand is bright enough, along with everyone else's lights, to illuminate the room. He sees Zack first: "Oi, kid," he says, his own English accent thickly Mancunian. "Probably best not to hang about here, ay?" Though... there's a ball of light hanging over his head. He has just enough of a moment to squint at that before: "Iron Man? Is that -- this is a bit down-market for you, isn't it? Gang activity?"

That's one advantage for a kid like Zack. This kind of place is a perfect space since he's got plenty of room to maneuver. The kid's not making any real effort to hide his face right now. Why should he. The sphere of light floats over his head as he continues his sprint. Thank the gods for footie or he'd probably be pretty winded about now. As it is, he's just a little sweaty. The teenager pulls his rapier out though as he runs, keeping it pointed down for the time being, the point making a nice line in the accumulated dirt. "It would probably be safer for me than it would be for a great many people here." Zack says in a clipped tones that generally marks one as being from the London area. "Something has been using the concept of a Wraith and there's no real signs of a true Wraith here. That begs the question of what sort of thing would want to be confused as such a being." Yes. Wraith are real.

Iron Man shakes his head, "Trust me, if this is a gang, then they're the nerdiest gang I've ever come across. Something downstairs is sucking down enough wattage to keep a brownstone in lights for six months and there's a temperature shift like someone installed a meat locker not far from it. He pops the faceplate up and offers a wave, "So you guys know who I am, but who are you guys - I thought Ghostbusters folded a while ago."

"I'm just -- " Gregor makes a soft, irked sound under his breath. "Call me Spook. Nice to meet you both. True Wraith?" He looks over at Zack with a touch of amusement and shakes his heasd. "They teach you about that at Hogwarts? Fair enough. Right: I'm here for the same reason you two are. More or less. I want to know who's running off with the electrical toys of New York City. Something that cold /could/ be for electronics. Could be they're scavenging parts to make something big? The question is, who? And what?" "If you're unable to comprehend such a simple thing as a Wraith being a real entity, I feel quite sorry for you." Zack says smirking a little bit,"I don't really have a nomme de plume or anything. I am merely Zack. As far as Hogwarts goes, I wouldn't know. I didn't go. Do you believe it exists then?" He asks with that same little smirk on his face, "There's a definite shift but I don't see any confluxes of energy here though. It's definitely /not/ a supernatural entity."

Iron Man blinks a little, "Well, I party regularly someplace that used to only exist in mythology books. I can't see something like ghosts or wraiths being too far of a lateral shift in paradigm." he shrugs, "So. Zack it is then. Spook, a pleasure. Now that we've all been introduced.." - the faceplate snaps down with a clang, and the lights of the optics resume their ghostly blue hue and his voice is audible but slightly digitized, "Gentlemen. Let's go hunting."

Now that our collective heroes have collected themselves and there is ample light as they make their way down the stairs, the make shift electrical system can be seen taped in bundles along top edge of the center spiral of the walk way. Following the electrical cables, which consist of everything from stolen power line material to a really long sting of different colored extension cords all daisy-chained together, they make their way to the bottom of the stairs with Iron man's every step echoing horribly loudly in the stair well until they reach the bottom where there is.. a wall. It's a wall made of the same kind of stone as the rest of the castle. It looks like it was poorly constructed cement bulges out of the seams between the bricks like they where just slapped into place. The cement is still wet...

Someone walled them selves in to the room cutting themselves off from the only exit. The only part of the opening left is a small corner where the electrical cables run in at the top. The wall is still not fully set so Tony could easily push it down. Someone built a wall, really badly, and assumed no one would ever question the fact that there was a wall at the end of a stair case.. or it's the most obvious trap ever.

All three of the heroes can most likely sense in various ways what is behind the wall. There is a strange muffled humming sound coming from the smaller chamber attached to the utility room behind the wall. Whatever the machinery that is still on is doing it's making a harmless low frequency vibration behind the wall but no light can be seen through the small opening that the wires go through. JARVIS can deduce that it is several devices running, the vibrations from them overlapping creating the humming sound. Cooling units. It is the sound of six air-conditioning units being used in a small space.

"I'm not saying it's impossible," Spook replies to the others, descending along with them. "I'm just saying that I don't think a ghost has any particular need for a StarkPhone. Unless you've added some really impressive new coverage." He does roll his eyes at the kid, though: "Bet you impress all the girls with your massive vocabulary, lad. Whatever's down here, I hope you can do more to protect yourself than make a flashlight." He frowns as they reach the wall, though, and glances back: "Want to do the honours?" he inquires. Not that he isn't perfectly capable, but Tony obviously likes to break things.

"Tell you what, write down any words that you don't understand and I'll explain them to you after we figure out what's going on." Zack says shrugging a little bit as he lifts his blade and tests the dusty experimentally between fingers. "And I assure you that impressing a girl is the least of the concerns I have." He says with a bit of a laugh,"Don't worry about me and protecting myself." He says stepping out of the way for Iron Man to blow through the wall.

Iron Man shakes his head, "I swear if I didn't know any better, I'd swear your names were Edith and Archie." he surveys the wall and is allowed to do the honors, "Shield your eyes, fellas." he says genially, and holds up both hands. An equally low hum issues from the repulsors before a low level blast takes care of enough of the wall for everyone to step over with a slight hop.

The stone wall tumbles inward quite easily if messily sending bricks flying into the room and splattering wet cement over the contents of the room. The room behind the wall is a old work space where the staff use to assemble the displays for the upstairs exhibits. The a papier-mâché tree sits in one corner unused and a network of electronic devices tied on strings, taped to the wall, sitting on a table, that are all shut off or in sleep-mode give off tiny specs of light from their LCD power lights. There is a closet off to the side of the room with a wooden door that is closed. The heaviest electrical cables hang from the ceiling bundled together leading into the small closet where the sounds are coming from. The cold is coming from that small closet. The stolen apartment air-conditioners are being used to keep that tiny closet very, very cold. Tony can scan right through the wooden door and see no life form but there is a robot. It's a H.A.L. (Humanoid Automated Laborer) designed by a subsidiary of Lexcorp. http://tinyurl.com/HALBot

After rumors of the mishap spread in the corporate world Lex's company reported one of the prototypes had indeed malfunctioned but they believed it had been destroyed. The demise of the robot has obviously been greatly exaggerated. It's cowering behind the door holding a metal pole it's bent into a spear shape. The robot was a prototype because it was rumored that the subsidiary was experimenting with a dual-brain design. One part of the robot's core operating system was much like any other robot but the other half of the 'brain' was designed to learn from humans. It was intended to be a robot you didn't need to program for specific labor tasks. Once they worked out the bugs, you would just be able to show it what to do and it would do it then if you needed it to do something else you just showed it how to do that. A learning robot to replace the world force of humans that never slept, never made mistakes, never tired. The learning machine has been learning. It's been learning to be afraid of humans from the way it's cowering in the cooling chamber. Mystery solved... kinda?

Mystery not at all solved. Not at all. This is a damned weird room, cobbled and kludged together to make a freezing-cold chamber for one lonely and rather horrifying looking robot. A /frightened/ one. Whatever bickering he was carrying on with the child is forgotten; Gregor steps closer, honest concern taking the place of displeasure and irritation. He steps past Iron Man, and as he does there's a faint glimmer in the air before him. A TK shield. Just in case it tries to get nasty with that spear. But Gregor's hands are raised, palms out, and he speaks softly and gently to the cowering robot. "Hey, there. Easy. It's all right, mate. We haven't come to hurt you -- " He glances back over his shoulder. "/Have/ we?" The tone brooks no argument. And this could be nothing more than a trap, but that's why he's prepared with a shield. One thing's for sure: he doesn't plan to disassemble Jonny 5 if he has an option.

Mystery not at all solved. Not at all. This is a damned weird room, cobbled and kludged together to make a freezing-cold chamber. Gregor walks slowly inside, the air before him glimmering very slightly as he puts up a telekinetic shield. "All right," he murmurs, looking left, right, and center. "But who's maintaining this? It wouldn't keep running without a handler." He reaches up, stripping off a glove and dropping bare fingers on the probably-freezing door. Whoever takes care of the place might well be inside -- where else could they be? -- but he wants to know who and what they /are/ first. And if he senses nothing? He's going to give the door a knock.

Stepping into the freezing cold chamber, Zack frowns a little bit as he looks around. "It's too cold for a normal person to be surviving." He says as he looks around the small chamber. "I really hope we don't have to do anything in this space. Not sure that it would be a good space if we had to defend ourselves." He says frowning a little bit. Yes. He's thinking tactically here. After all, it's probably not going to lead to hugs and puppies. Probably more kittens doing facehugs with sharp talons.

Iron Man holds up a hand, "Watch it guys! There's one of Lex's broken toys behind that door. A robot that can be taught specific tasks called a HAL - Humanoid Automated Laborer. It was supposed to replace the menial work force, but in this case Lex took after Hammer and created something so singularly flawed that it failed. Spectacularly. Now these things are just punch lines to bad AI jokes. Someone had to go to a lot of trouble to steal that and try and get it running."

Actually there is no sign at all there was a living person in this room for years, no food, no water, no nothing. Just electronics. Jarvis can identify part from many of the various stolen devices having been integrated into the robot's system. If it was a living thing it's back would be an open wound. The robot was never completed and it's coolant system appears to be out of coolant. The vest from the police officer has been ripped up and the lining has been used to plug a leak in it's hydraulic system. The robot has been stealing parts to repair itself and it's.. well.. messy. Without the coolant system running it's had to use heat sinks. Sharp pieces of metal sticking out of the robot's back dissipating the heat but the cooling system is primitive at best and without the cooling chamber it built, the CPU network would have eventually melted down. Lexcorp most likely assumed the robot would be found eventually after it burned itself out. The robot found a way to survive and repair itself.

When the knock on the door comes the robot moves inside the chamber turning and looking left and right not sure what it should do. It holds the make-shift spear and calls out in a voice stolen from a movie, "There are many things my father taught me here in this room. He taught me, 'keep your friends close, but your enemies closer' " the voice is that of Michael Corleone from God Father II. He's daring them to come in? Inviting them in? It's hard to tell.

"Jesus." Gregor stares at the kludged-together robot with half its bits missing. It looks... well, it looks rather ghoulish for someone who's used to people who don't look like people. But this is a robot. A robot that's either being controlled remotely or has a rudimentary mind of its own. He raises his hands palms forward: ""Hey, there. Easy. It's all right, mate. We haven't come to hurt you -- " He glances back over his shoulder. "/Have/ we?" The tone brooks no argument. And this could be nothing more than a trap, but that's why he's prepared with a shield. One thing's for sure: he doesn't plan to disassemble Jonny 5 if he has an option. But he does pay attention to Tony's words: this sucker's not harmless.

"So," he goes on, looking the robot up and down. "Who's your daddy, then?"

Actually not half as scary as some ghouls, but Zack does blink a little bit at cobbled together nature of the robot, "I don't believe that Robots generally look like that. Is it... stable? Because if it isn't there are a whole lot of people out there that could get hurt if it went well... BOOM." He says making a gesture but trying to keep his voice down. Rapier's still held at the his side, but he doesn't seem to be leveling it at the robot or anything.

JARVIS runs a quick diagnostic scan of the HAL and reports, "Sir, the construct is severely damaged. It's dorsal superstructure is a mess, there is no cooling system to speak of, and it's riddled with shrapnel. We could easily repair it back at the Tower. Using what is available here, including non-vital portions of this suit, repairs could be rendered in ninety minutes. The suit would be running slightly above temp, and missing some of the flashier features, but still combat ready."

Having put JARVIS on the speaker, the faceplate pops up and he looks to the other two men here. "So..do we sweep and clear, or search and rescue?"

The robot plays the Lecxorp Jingle in response to the question but takes a step forward holding the spear. Now he acts like he expect the humans to step back. That's how it works in the movies right? You point a spear at someone and they jump back! That's how spears work. No one ever gets hurt by a spear in the movies. They never show it anyway.

He points the spear at the human(ish) beings but ignores Iron Man all together because it must think he is a robot until Tony's face plate pops open and there is a human inside the robot. The broken robot shrieks like a girl in a horror movie, drops the spear and tries to just run as fast as it's broken body will carry it. Hopefully the humans will get out of the way, it seems genuinely terrified of Iron Man.

Fortunately it's not a complicated machine and it has virtually no security features. JARVIS can just shut it's motor systems down before it makes it out of the room.

When Gregor hears the voice of JARVIS, he looks around with some honest surprise. "Well, hello," he says, flashing rather a broad smile. "Are you an AI, then? If so, I'm curious about your thoughts on deactivating a fellow artificial intelligence. Even if he isn't very bright," Gregor adds as the robot brandishes a spear at him. He raises his eyebrows, folding his arms across his chest and staring the robot down. When it screams in terror at the terrifying face of Tony, though, he takes a step back in astonishment as it makes a break for the door. It doesn't take much for him to lift the robot off its feet and hold it in place, and JARVIS can do what he likes with it from there. "Wouldn't recommend taking him home and making him your pet," he says. "Who knows where he's been? But I'd inspect him somewhere else if I were you."

The robot's reaction takes Zack by surprise and he just barely manages to get out of the screaming robot's way. "Probably best to bag it up and take it somewhere. However, I think I should probably be getting going. Since it isn't supernatural there's not anything truly to worry about that the pair of you cannot handle." He says as he takes a step backwards, "I'll leave this to you gentlemen. Robots are not my forte after all."

JARVIS' dry voice fills the room, "Just a moment sir..handshaking -- we have a connection. Rerouting moto-servo routines and powering them down. His mind is active, sir but his body is not. I assume we're taking him back to Stark Tower?"

Tony nods, "Bet your ass we are. We're gonna fix him, we're gonna find out who did this, and then we're calling Lex and asking him if he could be a bigger horse's ass than to let one of his constructs get stolen."

Flailing helplessly in the grip of the telekinetic field the poor broken robot seems to panic. It's one white eye pulses. It's systems surge, it's processors kick into over drive. It starts to calculate trying to compensate for the sudden lack of gravity and the invisible forces holding it. Then JARVIS sends the shut down command and the machine slowly powers down. The logical side of it's brain shuts down it's motor controls first then the human interaction half of it's brain starts to go into sleep-mode as if it can't take the idea of being captured the robot shows all the human signs of a victim of abuse. It shuts down rather than dealing with horrifying reality. Like a puppet without a puppeteer it's just a machine once more.

Tony can take it home, examine it and repair it if he wants. The robot's core systems seem to be exactly what the scientists intended it to be. It uses a normal processor and a unstable quantum processor to simulate human learning. This particular unit is the only one they ever got to work at all and it seems to have been less than successful or perhaps very successful depending on how you look at it. The robot not only escaped Lexcorps when they tried to delete it's memory core it found a way to repair itself and keep itself functional. Tony can go through the terabytes of data where it sits and analyzes TV programs using human interaction software.

Unfortunate some of the movies on the devices it stole included a Stephen King collection. Imagine if your only interactions with humans was Lexcorp trying to erase you then escaping and learning about humanity through television and movies. It's no wonder it was acting so strange.

But there is something weird about it. There is something missing. This robot shouldn't work. At least not as well as it has been. It's like the basic systems are there but there is a spark missing. Some kind of spark of life. Stark can examine it for days but it will be just a robot. At least it will be just a robot until Grodd turns his remote back on and overrides the 'learning' CPU and begins using the puppet once more. He wants Stark to have plenty of time to puzzle over the robot before it 'wakes up'. Grodd has worked on this robot, this plan, for years carefully manipulating events. He knows Stark and Richards couldn't resist the mystery of a self-emerging A.I. and that weakness will give Grodd the ultimate inside spy.