Valora’s safehouse, Mexico City, Mexico:
Valora sits out on the balcony of the house she has. By American standards, it’s fairly modest.. A middle class style home, nothing special. In Mexico City, however, it seems more impressive in the current scope of the surrounding city. Abbigail walks out and sighs, wiping sweat from her brow. “Jesus Christ… does it ever get below 80 degrees here?” Valora smirks. “At night. Bienvenido a Mexico, chica.” She says as she looks around, taking in the view of the city. Abbigail nods. “So.. how many places do you have anyways?”
Valora rolls her eyes a bit and shrugs. “You make it sound like I’m some rich billionaire asshole. I have a shitty apartment in Cleveland. A shitty place on the South Side of Chicago, I had my home and gym in L.A. I had a bar for a bit.” Abbigail interrupts. “What happened?” Valora shrugs. “I learned the hard way that an alcoholic running a bar is a bad idea.. Loved that place though… This place, and a couple of other safe houses in Mexico. I have a safe house in the Canary Islands, my nicest house is in Barcelona. I have a few other safe houses on rotation based on need… Samantha would have the exact details as rotation means I’m selling and moving things around to stay ahead of the competition.” Abbigail nods. “And you don’t think you’re rich?” Valora sighs. “Safehouses, chica.. The point of a safe house is to blend in. Take this place for instance. This was my home when I was a Federale. Paid for legally by my police salary and pensions. All legit and thus no one asks questions.. My house in Barcelona.. Well Barcelona is a rich area and my identity there is more.. Upper class so I blend in. Chicago and Cleveland I had when I fought in those cities and couldn’t afford to be bouncing back and forth between California and the Midwest and they fit in with a rookie fighter.” Abbigail nods. “And the island?” Valora smirks. “Belonged to a rival of mine.. He no longer needs it.. So Samantha and I did some fancy work and his stuff became my stuff.”
Abigail laughs. “So you didn’t buy an island and private plane as much as you stole them?” Valora nods. “Criminals are the best people to steal from.. No worry of them calling the authorities on you.. If my rival were still alive, I’d have to worry about him and angry armed men.. But with him gone it’s easy for things to get lost in the shuffle.”
Abbigail is about to say more when Valora’s phone beeps and she picks up the smartphone, taking a look at it, before sighing and waving towards her laptop. Abbigail heads over, taking the laptop opening it up and setting it on the table. Samantha’s face appears, looking at Valora resting and calmly sipping her mojito and shakes her head. “You know you are literally the only person in the world who could possibly be in the spot you are and look like you’re on vacation.” Valora nods. “Key words there are look like chica. This is the calm before the storm. Where are you on the Kronin situation?”
Samantha frowned a bit as she contemplated the question. “This isn’t a 100% guarantee fix. I won’t force a sentient-” Valora lifts her hand. “I know and I never said you would have to. I also didn’t ask for a fucking ethics class..” Samantha nods. “Cortana and I have a basic sketch and some of the preliminary algorithms written and encoded. Based on personality samples of Kronin and his twin sister Kara, the result should be compatible and willing to pair with him. I’ll be speaking to both of them later today and will get some more information including finding out if he has preferences for some of the finer details.” Abbigail chimes in. “Don’t you worry about legal issues naming her ‘Cortana.’?” Samantha laughs. “Kid.. if people knew what I invented.. Half the world would hail me as the genius I am, the other half look at me as a modern-day Frankenstein.” Valora sips from her mojito and adds in “Not to mention the Military-Industrial Complex would want to use it.” Samantha laughs and shrugs. “Warhammer is, or was already trying something similar.. But their scientists are all morons. Rather than going the simple and more feasible route, they were trying for the comic-book supervillian route. To answer your question, Abbigail, naming her ‘Cortana’ makes it easier to hide. Someone walks into my lab and hears me talking to my computer, they assume I’m talking to the computer program, just like someone talking to Siri would be assumed to be talking to their iphone. Humanity isn’t ready for Artificial Intelligence. Mine is a risk. Making a second for another person is not something I’m excited about at all.”
Valora nods. “Kronin knows how to keep a secret and is too much of a boy scout to consider misusing it. So what brings you on the laptop today?” Samantha nods, holding up a tablet. “Your match. You’re booked in a number one contender’s match against Vastrix and Sato.”
Valora smirks and rolls her eyes. “Force me to fight my allies… speaking of overused comic book cliche tactics…” Samantha nods. “I have a plan.. Abbigail’s absence could work well in helping make use of it.” Valora raises an eyebrow. “Go on..” Samantha nods. “Well, we have access to Warhammer’s files.. Meaning I do, in theory, have access to the complete technical schematics of Vastrix’s cybernetic suite.. It’s a total Vader job.” Abbigail laughs a bit. “They added in a malfunctioning respirator?” Valora shakes her head. “She means the suit is designed to punish Vastrix as much as it is meant to enhance his abilities and keep him alive.” Samantha nods. “That’s my initial thought, yes. Could be wrong. I’d have to research the schematics in more detail. However, those schematics mean I could rig up a device you could use to temporarily hack into and disable certain parts. For instance, say pinning him and he finds his arms and legs won’t respond to let him kick out.” Valora nods. “No. I’ll need both Vastrix and Sato to help me out against the actual bad guys here. I’ve beaten both before, I’ll find a way to do so again.” Samantha nods. “Fair enough.”
A short time later, the video call ends and Abbigail looks over at Valora. “So what was the point of bringing me out here?” Valora shrugged. “Training.” Abbigail nods. “One thing first… I have some questions about your background.. I mean… the assassin thing.. How do you even get into that line of work? I mean it’s not exactly something you go to college for. ‘Hi, my name is Jane, I’m majoring in Assassination and Terrorism.’ Right?”
Valora laughed a bit and started to speak before laughing again as she shook her head. “Actually, you’d be surprised the skills college can teach you, if you know how to arrange them and be...creative in their application. I went to USC on an athletic scholarship. Soccer. Before we go any further, what does that tell you about me?”
Abbigail thinks for a long moment and nods. “Umm.. well you’re an athlete.. USC is in the PAC 12 so you’re an elite athletic. You have to have good stamina to play soccer. Scholarship means you likely can’t afford college the traditional way. But none of that says Assassin to me.” Valora smirks. “Because we’re intentionally narrowing the scope, and, you’re also not looking at the skillset as a government recruiter would. Stamina and athletic ability are two big things government agencies look for. Now, with that scholarship I went to school, majored in Criminal psychology. In addition to the courses for my major, I studied criminal justice, Criminal law, sociology, history, political science. Prepared myself for medical school as well as courses from the formerly mentioned topics. See how that changes things?” Abbigail thinks for a moment. “You..were hoping to be a cop or a profiler or something?” Valora smirks. “Well yes.. I was young and stupid in those days.. More specifically, to people who know what to look for, the above give you the skills and knowledge to be either a master cop, or a master criminal. It all depends on the application of the knowledge you gain. I was approached and recruited by the FBI. I was gonna go too. A sweet offer.. FBI training, assignment to their elite profiling unit. I thought I had it made. Then my friend asked me a personal favor. To come here.. To Mexico with her. She had connections to the President. She wanted me to come to Mexico with her and set up a special task force within the Mexican Federal Police. I took her up on it. That started a chain of events led me down the path that eventually brought me here.” Valora finishes her drink and stands up. “And storytime is over for now. We have work to do. We need to start getting you up to speed.”
Abbigail blinks at the last remark and watches as Valora grabs her gym bag and nods. “One more question Val… why me, seriously… why?” Valora stopped in the doorway, her back to Abbigail and sighed as she glanced over her shoulder. “Repayment of a debt. Your mother.. You’re real mother, helped me. Taking care and training you is part of my repayment of said debt. The fact that you and Samantha are one of the few human beings I can stand to be around and are good company is just an added bonus.” Abbigail blinks, stunned by this. “Wait.. you know my real parents?” Valora shrugs. “Parent. Singular noun. Mother, specifically. We’re also done talking for now. I know you want answers.. So I suppose that means you’ll actually pay attention to training today.” Valora said as the duo headed off. Abbigail muttering under her breath as she heads off after Valora.