Turn 46

--- Maya ---

“Okay, so uh, what exactly did you want me to help with?” She asked, stepping into Melvin’s workshop.

“First, tell me how much of this do you understand?” The other M.A.D. questioned, gesturing to a tangle of electronics and wiring on one side of the room. “No pressure, I just want to see where you are.”

“Uh, in that case… very little?” She offered, her eyes roaming the mess as she listened to what little advice the whispers were willing to give her. “But it, um, I think it’s a uh, makeshift… breaker box?”

“In part.” Melvin nodded. “Though that only covers one of its functions.”

“Oh…” She grimaced, not liking the idea of failing a test even if it was just to gauge where she was.

“Don’t worry, like I said I just wanted to see where you’re at.” Melvin assured her. “The fact that you were able to figure out that this was a breaker box at all, means you might actually be able to help me keep this place running.”

“Really,” She glanced back at the electronic tangle as the whispers finally began to piece together some of the other parts. “but if it’s that easy can’t another electronic M.A.D. help you out just as easily?”

Melvin snorted at that. “Have you seen how many explosions this place has on a weekly basis? There is no way in hell I’m letting them anywhere near my baby.”

She couldn’t help but frown in confusion. “But then why let me help out with this, just because I can figure out that little bit?”

“I’m not.” Melvin admitted bluntly, before gesturing towards a free work bench with a simple collection of wires and electronics. “Instead, I’m going to show you the basics of building your own grid. If that doesn’t blow up, then I’ll show you how to work on my baby… in an emergency only.”

“Okay, that’s fair.” She nodded, moving towards said work area.

(Especially since we’ve already built a grid for our lab.) Her inner madness agreed.

“So, what’s first?”

---

“So…” She began, drawing the one word out for as long as possible.

(You have no idea where to start do you?) Her inner logic sighed.

“No, no, I know exactly what I want to do.” She argued.

(Just not where to start?)

She couldn’t really argue that.

(Is this really that hard?) Her inner passion had to ask. (I mean teamwork isn’t that hard of a concept to wrap your head around chica.)

“It is when you’ve… never actually been on a team.” She defended.

(What about all of those P.E. classes we participated in?) Her inner reason asked.

(You mean the ones we were picked last for?) She remembered bitterly.

(All of our online games?) Her inner logic tried.

(The ones where we get stuck with enemy feeding scrubs?) Her inner passion reminded even more bitterly.

(Our… siblings?)

(Is that relationship working with the LCMs?)

Her eyes drifted to where said minions were currently working on a few parts of the new drone she was going to build later. Or rather where 1A was ordering 1B around, while trying to keep the other minion from ruining his work.

(Point…) Her inner reason conceded.

“No, let’s be honest working with our siblings is the closest thing we know to teamwork.” She sighed, “Let’s just start there, and do what we can to keep them from getting in each other's way.”

(Oh, if we’re doing that then we can probably get the whispers to spread it out to apply to all of our minions.) Her inner madness suggested. (After all they seem to really be into this whole family angle.)

---

“Alright, you two finish those tools?” She asked her littlest minions, having left them to a task they’d done before.

1B began to nod excitedly, said tools in his hands.

At least until 1A stopped him, took the tools, and proudly presented them himself.

She rolled her eyes, unable to keep a grin off her face as she took the tools and began installing them onto her newest minion.

(So skynet two: electric boogaloo.) Her inner passion laughed sarcastically. (I dig it.)

(We’re not causing skynet two.) She thought to herself, not wanting her minions to learn about skynet just yet.

(Not that I don’t trust them. I’m just keeping them away from bad influences, like any parent would.)

(Sure you are.)

“Look DM-2 isn’t going to have any of those early behavioral problems DM-1 had, largely because DM-1 is going to be a fantastic big brother and explain to them why they shouldn’t do certain things.” She told herself.

(You mean like how he taught the LCMs to destroy their enemies?) Her inner reason pointed out dryly.

(Yes, that actually is something older siblings are supposed to teach you.) Her inner madness admitted. (Though in our case it’s our younger sister teaching us how to do that.)

Deciding to ignore the taunts of the annoying little voice in her head -(Hey!)- she instead began DM-2’s boot up process, slowly bringing the little drone into consciousness.

After a few moments the little drone’s re-(pink?) camera lights flickered on, and it glanced around the room.

(Huh, we must have mis-colored the lens when we were making them.) Her inner reason noted.

(This is what happens when we’re working with subpar materials.)

“Well, I like it.” She told the voices in her head, drawing the attention of her newest drone. “Why, hello there. DM-2, welcome to the world!”

The drone stared at her for a moment, seemingly shivering in excitement, before taking off and running out of the lab.

Left blinking at the drone’s previous position, her eyes slowly drifted to the door as it drifted shut.

“That wasn’t supposed to happen.”

---

“Where did that little drone get to…” She groaned, once more checking her COMP as she was forced to walk into an unexplored wing of the hospital. “I don’t get why she took off like that.”

(Probably the personality randomizer screwing us over.) Her inner passion told her. (Then again timid bot is a lot safer than killer bot… Though admittedly not as fun.)

That made her pause. “I’m sorry, but the random what-now?”

(Oh, you didn’t notice that bit?) Her inner madness asked curiously. (Our AI programming involves randomizing our minions personalities so that each one is seemingly distinct from the rest of its kind.)

“That’s… you’ve been making all of these skynet jokes and you didn’t tell me about this?!” She yelled, idly hearing her voice echo throughout the hospital.

(What? I thought after learning about their ability to learn and their sapiency you would’ve started paying attention to our coding.)

“I have been, but that sounds like something hidden in what we’ve already written!” She argued pointedly.

(I thought you would’ve gone over it by now.)

“You’re in my head, when have you seen me do that?!”

(I’m going to be honest, I largely blank out on the boring parts of your life unless I think I can get a snarky remark off.) Her inner madness admitted.

“You what?” She scowled.

(I do something similar.) Her inner reason confessed with some embarrassment. (Though I do try to chime in when you need moral support as well.)

“That’s just…” She rubbed at her eyes, feeling a headache coming on because, “The voices in my head are insane…”

(Pretty sure anyone could’ve told you that.)

“Just… Just shut up.” She sighed, with a physically palpable amount of resignation, before taking in her exact surroundings.

Like the rest of the hospital she hadn’t bothered cleaning up, this wing was covered in rubble and bloodstains left after the years of inattention brought about after the hospital’s infamous massacre. All of which she was more than used to navigating around, though unfortunately due to how far away this wing was from her main base of operations and thus the lack of lights within said wing, her surroundings were left cast in a heavy darkness that she was much less used to traversing.

Shaking her head, she turned her COMP’s light on as she once more checked where her drone had wandered off to.

“Looks like she’s right around the corner… and she’s not moving. Good.” She nodded before continuing through the dark and abandoned hospital wing.

(So, how much you guys wanna bet we’re going to run into another ghost down here?) Her inner passion asked after a moment.

She couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “I doubt we’re going to run into another Deadman. This is just… generic spooky hospital stuff. Besides, even if we do find another one the ghost girl has left us alone so long as we stay out of her wing of the hospital.”

(And what if we’re stepping into a different Deadman’s wing of the hospital?) Her inner madness argued, a sense of paranoia building as they walked deeper into the unexplored wing.

(Statistically speaking the odds of a second Deadman being here is less than one in a million, given the odds of someone actually becoming a Deadman in the first place.) Her inner reason pointed out. (And that’s before we get into their cannibalistic habits.)

“Yeah, see nothing to worry about.” She nodded, shining her COMP light around as she tried to spot her drone hiding amongst the rubble.

(Relying on statistics is bullshit.) Her inner passion warned. (I mean seriously, statistically speaking, we shouldn’t be able )

“That just means that we’re the one in a mill- There you are!” She called, immediately jumping trains of thought as she spotted DM-2 cowering amongst the rubble. “Do you have any idea how worried I was?!”

(Not at all.)

(Shut up!) She mentally scolded herself as she picked up DM-2 and held the cold unfeeling drone close to her chest. “Don’t run off like that again you understand me chica!”

(Gah, you’re starting to sound like mamá.)

(I told you to zip it missy!)

(See!)

Shaking her head she turned back to DM-2 taking note of how the little drone’s freshly buffed metal was already scuffed all over, (and look at this red gunk she got all over herself.)

“We’re going to have to scrub you down when we get back to the lab, I mean what even is this stuff? Almost looks like…” She trailed off feeling the familiar crimson consistency on her fingers.

(Ah look, violence is her fear response!) Her inner madness cooed, as she wiped the blood off on a wall.

“Don’t encourage-” She jumped pulling her hand away from the wall and into the light of her COMP.

(Oh dear.)

(The fuck.)

She couldn’t help but match the voices’ verbal grimaces, as she caught sight of her hand somehow covered in even more blood than before. “What the hell?”

DM-2 made an odd sound Maya didn’t think the drone capable of as she began to shake even more in her arms.

Swallowing down her apprehension she turned her COMP to the hospital wall and noted quite promptly that it was bleeding from every little chip and crack in its surface. An event that she quickly realized was occurring with every wall around her.

(I… I honestly can’t tell if this is better or worse than another ghost…)

“Mm-hmm.” She whimpered before immediately turning back towards the wing entrance and running. “Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope!”