Turn 43

--- Maya ---

Since Ying and Aisha were both busy with their own things during lunch, be it Ying setting up her numerous extracurriculars or whatever her new friend Aisha did on her own time, she instead made her way to the school library where she searched out a book on armors either modern or old. An interest developed after her work the previous day, upgrading her armor and then realizing how few ideas she had for her armor.

Of course, given how they were in the age of masks, the first relevant book she came across was a book focusing on M.A.D., what they could do, and how the Deviancy had developed culturally in the few decades since they were publicly outed.

Admittedly the majority of the book was the kind of complex cultural dissection that could be expected of a school approved book, but that didn’t mean there was nothing in the book related to armor. Especially since said book often listed and described the equipment of the more prominent M.A.D.s out there.

“The Iron Guardian?” She asked herself, looking over the long list of the New Haven hero’s gear. “He’s supposed to be one of the Hero Guild’s best tech M.A.D.s.”

(Nah.) Her inner passion dismissed. (Look how heavy that gear is, we’d barely be able to move until we figure out how to build servos into the armor to carry the weight for us.)

(What if we used our gravity tech to adjust the armor’s weight?) Her inner reason argued. (It wouldn’t be nearly as much of a problem then.)

(Maybe, but it’d still be more power armor than a basic set.)

“Nothing wrong with that.” She reminded herself, before flipping to another M.A.D. in the hopes they had something more agile.

(Ooh, bio-armor?) Her inner madness stopped her on a page featuring an M.A.D. wrapped in an organic armor of some kind, insect carapace and reptilian scales both prominent in the suit’s design.

“Uh, I’m not too sure about wearing a living creature.” She grimaced, the idea not at all pleasant.

(Come on! We could build our own symbiote suit!) Her passion appealed to her inner nerd.

(Mm, perhaps just a pin in this one.) Her inner logic offered in compromise. (If we did attempt this, we’d need a fair amount of skill in biological matters to make sure the suit doesn’t attempt to eat us or worse.)

“Right,” She nodded flipping through a few more pages before- “Nope.”

She slammed the book shut, trying to pretend she hadn’t just seen a suit made out of what the whispers were insisting was flesh and bone, human flesh and bone.

(Why the fuck was that in a school book?!) Her inner child cried.

(I suppose it's a book on M.A.D.s not heroic M.A.D.s.) Her inner reason pointed out.

“Still that’s like… Royale levels of fucked up.” She grimaced, remembering the last time she’d heard of something like this.

(Perhaps he was one, after all they did leave a mark on modern culture.) Her inner logic admitted.

(More like a scar…)

---

“Ooh, I’m so excited!” She couldn’t help but cheer as the excess nutrient serum began to drain from her pod.

(Yes! So, what if we might be responsible for the zerg apocalypse we have created life!) Her inner madness cackled, before continuing in a more subdued manner. (That’s like a big milestone for mad scientist types.)

(Quite.) Her inner reason agreed, as the last of the serum drained revealing her new critters. (Oh dear…)

(Uh, wasn’t there only supposed to be one rat thing in here?) Her inner passion questioned as a small pale rodent with a slightly large head, and another more commonly sized rodent both began to blink themselves awake.

(I suppose we did leave the bio-pod cooking for a little too long, which when combined with a slight excess of nutrients led to the growth of a twin.) Her inner logic reasoned out.

(So we created life twice?) Her inner madness confirmed, before laughing in her namesake. (That just means we’re twice as kickass as those other losers!)

The smaller of the two critters turned to look at her with an innocent, curious, and most importantly intelligent gleam to its eyes.

“Oh, hello there little ones.” She greeted, picking the two critters up as both of the fully grown creatures began to imprint on her.

The larger of the critters looked at her before waving happily as the smaller one tilted its head.

“My name is Maya, and you two are…” (Need to account for the fact that they’re twins…) “LCM-1A,” She raised the smaller Critter who’d woken up first. “and LCM-1B” she raised the other critter.

(You’re naming conventions are astounding.) Her inner reason told her dryly.

(Shut up.)

---

With her little critters now awake, and nibbling away at their first meal, she began working on a project that her inner reason had reminded her of earlier in the day when they were discussing her various armor options.

This project was a simple application of her gravity hacking into a more practical form, namely increasing her carry weight by creating a consistent and localized application of her gravity hack. Which is why she had to stitch a second layer of fabric over the electronic bits she’d added to her backpack, while avoiding a fire hazard-

“Ouch!”

-and stinging herself with her own needle.

“Hey! Sewing is not my specialty!” She told the voices in her head.

(Oi, don’t drag me into this, chica.) Her inner passions warned. (I hate sewing just as much as you do. I mean it’s just so boring!)

(Well, regardless of our actual skill or desire to, sewing is something we’re going to have to get used to if we intend to implement any fabrics into our future costumes.) Her inner reason reminded the rest of her.

(Ugh. Again, I vote for the bio-armor!) Her inner madness cried.

“Yeah- I mean no, to the bio-armor, but yeah, I’m putting a minimum amount of fabrics into our costume design.” She decided. “We’ll be one of those urban heroes who’s costume is cool, but still something you’d wear in public… minus all the extra metal bits.”

(We’d still need to know the basics to keep from having to replace all of our clothes each fight.) Her logic pointed out, forcing a grimace out of her when she realized she couldn’t really argue with that.

(Grr, fine you have a point… But I’m not letting it onto our skill list!)

---

As she was working on the last few bits and pieces for her Grav-Pack, she noticed DM-1 watching his two new siblings with a mix of curiosity and concern that the two little critters were giving him in equal measure. Or 1A was while 1B was more focused on his food.

(I can already tell where all the brains went on these two.)

(Hey, don’t go insulting our newest minions like that!) She thought rather than said, not wanting any of her minions to hear what she was talking about regardless of their level of comprehension.

(I was only insulting one of them.)

Frowning, she turned her attention back to her three minions as a thought occurred to her. (You know we really should give DM-1 a little more attention.)

(What do you mean?)

(Well, we’ve had DM-1 for almost a month and we’ve barely given him any upgrades.) She reminded herself. (And now that we’ve got more minions we don’t want him to start feeling neglected.)

(If he’s even capable of that yet.) Her inner madness pointed out.

She shook her head. (Doesn’t matter.)

“DM-1!” She called, causing all three of her minions to turn their attentions onto her as she patted the table next to her Grav-Pack. “Up on the table, we’re giving you an upgrade.”

The little drone gave her a little jig of excitement before climbing onto the table and entering sleep mode without any prompting.

(Hmm, we really do make a smart minion.) She couldn’t help but think as she began using her tools to shape some metal and electronic bits into a tool that would allow DM-1 to cut metal into smaller and more easily carried pieces.

“Going to need two sets of these.” She realized, as she looked over the first completed drone tool. “Eh, I’ll make another one after installing this one.”

Installing the first half of the upgrade took her a fair bit longer than she liked, largely due to the fact that she had to move a couple of pieces around DM-1 so that he could sheathe his tools when not in use, but eventually she did manage to get everything settled in a way that wouldn’t make movements awkward for her little drone.

Having finished with the first installation, she turned back to her tools to put the next piece together, only to freeze as she found 1A and 1B working together to build the other tool she needed to upgrade DM-1.

(And doing a fairly good job of it too…) She realized with a touch of awe, as the whispers informed her that her latest minions were actually doing the job just a touch more efficiently than she had moments before. (A really good job of it…)