Mouse Protector stood, embarrassed, holding her pose as she tried to figure out what to do next. On the one hand, asking for directions was going to be embarrassing, on the other hand, it looked like it was the only way out of this lab. Unless she just ran through random doors, that might work.
"Do you need help getting to the PRT headquarters?" The Mayhem bot asked.
"If you don't mind." She exclaimed.
He nodded.
"Follow the drone, it will take you to the bus station, you will receive instructions from there."
Mouse Protector nodded, and followed the drone. Being barefoot made it easy to leave teleportation marks, her mouse holes, through the base as she was lead out.
The trip was uneventful, although she drew odd stares for being in a bathrobe, and the part where a group of dragonflies gave her the exact change to pay the bus driver was rather interesting.
"Never fear, Mouse Protector is here!" Melissa announced, drawing attention from the whole room, just like she should. The PRT agents on duty reached for containment foam canisters, and if the agent behind the desk did their job right, then the silent alarm would already be activated.
The pose didn't quite work as well in a bathrobe, but really, bathrobe, mouse costume. Same difference. She wondered if the PRT had sold her stuff yet. Probably not, it had only been a few months, there was no way they could get the paperwork for that done fast enough.
"The Daring Doer of Gorgeous Good would like to speak to whoever is in charge. Unless that's Armsmaster, he has a stick up his… never-mind, there are children present. Where is Miss Militia!" She exclaimed.
Then she was foamed, as expected of course, but that was fine, she chose what came with her when she jumped. Manton limited unfortunately, she couldn't take anything living with her that wasn't herself, but she could pop backwards a few feet with the bathrobe, and not the foam.
"Really? I know it's been a long time, since I've had a bath, but I don't smell so bad you need to squirt me down." She said indignantly, folding her arms as the pile of foam collapsed in front of her.
One trooper raised his side arm, and she glared at him.
"Now I know that isn't protocol buddy. Trust me, I've filled out the paperwork for firing one of those when you're not supposed to. It isn't worth it." She said, locking gazes with him, and staring him down.
And then a boy with clocks on his costume ran out of the gift shop, fingers extended. Mouse Protector tried to keep track of all the wards, especially the ones that had the potential to really… get into the spirit of heroism. She'd had high hopes for Clockblocker. She still did really, it was just that Piggot didn't let her talk to him any more. His ambush wasn't bad as a rookie tactic, Vista had obviously helped him get downstairs quickly somehow, but Vista didn't have the line of sight to decrease the distance he needed to travel, it wouldn't have been enough against an ordinary teleporter, let alone one with enhanced agility and a slight increase to reaction speeds. Still, it showed initiative, that should be rewarded, and it would have been boring to wait for the Protectorate proper to arrive.
Clockblocker touched her, and then suddenly Armsmaster was standing in her face, his lips set sternly.
"Regrettably, Miss Militia is unavailable. You will have to speak with me." He said.
"Darn." Melissa replied.
…
"And then, when you realized that I'd made Chevalier combine it with the pineapple, not the grapefruit, you tried to hit me with a chair." Melissa said, smiling. Good times. It was a shame she'd only been a ward with Armsmaster for a few months.
"Very well, no one else was around at the time, and the matter was not made public record. In light of this and your answers to my previous questions, I believe that you do have the memories of one Melissa Brown, aka Mouse Protector. I will also note for the record that you appear to posses a similar personality." Armsmaster said stiffly.
She was currently locked in a room with Armsmaster, because he knew her and had a lie detector in his helmet, even if he complained it didn't work on a cool cyborg like herself. Velocity, because it was protocol to have two people watching a potential Master victim, and Dragon, who was listening in via video conference because Armsmaster wanted her opinion on the body that Mayhem had made.
Tagg wasn't here, because he was afraid of Master/Stranger contamination. Instead he was receiving a printed report of everything being said in the room as it was being said, reading it, and then typing responses that would sometimes appear on Armsmaster's tablet, and which he would sometimes read out.
Only Melissa was a teleporter, so she wasn't locked in a room with them at all. No, they were locked in here with her. Mwahahahaha.
Armsmaster glanced at his tablet, and frowned. He always did that. It annoyed him when the PRT made him carry a regulation phone, instead of just using the technology in his helmet, which was better and more efficient. He once described it as a constant, annoying itch, especially seeing as regulations prevented him from tampering with it, taking it apart, or improving it in any way.
"Tagg would like me to ask you about Mayhem. Do you have any ideas what he plans?" Armsmaster asked.
"Well, some, but don't you think you should ask me about the Slaugherhouse Nine first?" Melissa said. "They're kind of the bigger threat, and they are coming here, I heard them talking about it."
Armsmaster glanced at the tablet again, tapping his fingers impatiently on the table. A small multi-tool made it's way into his hand from the suit he was wearing, and then vanished back into some seamless compartment almost absently.
"No." Armsmaster said slowly. "Mayhem first. Tagg feels that the files we have on the Slaugherhouse are fairly complete, and preparations are already underway for if they come here."
"Hmm, all right. Mayhem's plans… I'll go ask him." Melissa said, vanishing from the table and appearing in the middle of Mayhem's lab.
Melissa turned around, looking for the Tinker, and caught sight of a short, blonde girl Tinkering with a body on a slab.
Her breath caught in a mechanical throat, if she had something like a heart, it would have been beating like a drum about to burst. Or something. It was horrifying. She should have teleported away, or reached for a weapon, but she froze.
The ability to move again only came with the realization that this wasn't Bonesaw. Too old, and the face wasn't quite right, even if the eyes were the same, and the face was very similar. An older sister as well?
But the body she was working on looked exactly the same. A blonde, frighteningly familiar teenaged girl.
The blonde startled, without looking around, and seemed to get angry.
"Do you have any idea at all how difficult it is to operate on the brain of a common house fly?" She asked. "Do you have any idea how much incredible precision it takes to get a fly's brain to line up with a human nervous system?"
"Ur, a lot?" Mouse Protector said. It wasn't Bonesaw, it couldn't be Bonesaw.
"And can you guess how much time and effort you've wasted by startling me while I was in the middle of that operation?" Not-Bonesaw said.
"Also a lot?" Mouse Protector said.
"Yes. Now why have you come back? Is the PRT willing to co-operate against the Nine?"
She was a Tinker, and she wasn't a robot. Was Mayhem dressing up in drag? Bonesaw had been quite sure that she had a brother. Then again, Melissa was well aware how bullshit bio-Tinkers could be. If she really wanted to hide from someone, and just dressing up wouldn't do… There were capes who swore by keeping their Civilian ID a different gender, just for that extra layer of security. Of course she'd always felt that some of them just enjoyed the excuse, but still.
"Not so far. Tagg wants to know what you're up to." Melissa said. It paid to be honest with these things, and she did owe Mayhem for saving her.
Mayhem paused, obviously registering the 'you're,' and drawing the right conclusions.
"I see. Well I would prefer the PRT not to know that I have changed my gender, and am making decoys to fool the Nine. I don't trust their security."
Melissa shrugged.
"I admit, their security isn't perfect. The Nine publicly announced that they were after me and I was sleeping in a PRT safe-house when I was taken, no one but a couple of PRT officials knew I was there. I'll keep your secret, but I would like something to tell Tagg."
Mayhem frowned, and went back to working on the body. Melissa hoped he'd taken care to grow it without a brain. She'd give him the benefit of the doubt for now.
Or was it her? Meh, easier just to say Mayhem.
"All right. Tell them that the Travelers and Skitter will be fighting with me, possibly Trainwreck and Grue, I'm still in negotiations. Also I will be using kinetic weapons this time, not chemical or biological ones. If everyone gets to the Endbringer shelters quickly when things start going down, there shouldn't be that many casualties. I am willing to consider some sort of joint assault under truce, in fact I'd prefer it if Tagg can get his head out of his ass." Mayhem said.
"Thanks. I'll pass it on. Good luck with the fly brains." Mouse Protector replied, teleporting back into the conference room.
Fly brains, bugs handing her a few dollars. Skitter, the girl in the bug costume from earlier, who sprayed on her skin. Oh yeah, Mayhem was a Trump Tinker, just like his sister. She was going to have to work on not freezing up like that. This had been a good wake-up call. She didn't think it was a master effect, not exactly, just crippling fear. She would overcome it, as Good always did.
Armsmaster glared at her as she popped back into existence, and laid the tablet on the table with a soft thud.
"Melissa," he said, because everyone here had clearance to know her name, and he was trying to be personable. Points for effort, eight out of ten, slightly flat delivery. "Melissa, Tagg is worried that Mayhem is mastering you into giving him information. He would like me to sedate you while we discuss this, and Dragon performs some scans."
Mouse Protector tilted her head, and sighed. Annoying, sooner or later she'd place one of her mouse holes on Tagg, and she'd train him to keep her and paperwork separate, or suffer the consequences.
"Finnne." She said, extending her arm.
Armsmaster jabbed it with a needle. It tingled.
Mouse Protector sat back. A minute later Armsmaster frowned, and then used his halberd to spray a little bit of gas near her nose. Melissa sniffed, obligingly, and twitched her nose. It didn't twitch as well as her last one did. She missed that. Mouse Protector had a twitch nose, everyone knew. Obviously she was going to have to retrain her twitching muscles. If they were actually muscles. She never had got a good look at her own face before the skin was sprayed on.
"Of course. Non-standard partially cybernetic biology. While I don't doubt that there are ways to sedate her safely, I don't think you possess them Colin." Dragon said.
Colin sighed.
"He's made her unstoppable." He muttered.
Heh hee! Finally, a way past the sedative dart bombs in Colin's lab. She wouldn't have to wear full body armor when she wanted to put something in there anymore. Not that she'd tried recently, it had been a long time since she and Colin had been Wards together. Still.
"Sooo… what now?" Melissa asked.
"We're to stay and watch you, and try to keep you here while Tagg consults Protectorate Thinkers."
"And not, you know, interview me for vital information while you're at it?" Mouse Protector said.
"No. Tagg is worried that any information we get from you might be tainted." Armsmaster said, frowning again.
This Tagg fellow must be pretty bad. Normally Armsmaster got along well with the more regimented, ex-military half of the PRT.
"Right. OK." Melissa said, looking down.
An idea occurred to her. It would pass the time, and with a little luck, it would finally make Dragon make a move on Colin. Those two had been dancing around each other enough that even Miss Militia mentioned it in her letters, and she was hardly a good gossip.
"There's um, something else." Melissa said, fiddling with her hands in her lap and rubbing her knees together. "Armsmaster, this is rather embarrassing, and I hope that you'll take me seriously when I say that I've given a lot of thought to your reliability, general accomplishments and genuinely kind nature when I say… I need you to make a woman out of me."
Armsmaster froze, a gratifying look of sheer horror and fear appearing on his features. Dragon was quiet as well, which was an even more impressive feat. Velocity made a choking noise.
"It's an odd request, but you see, the person who made this body was a teenage boy, and well, it was meant for someone else first. There are certain… problems with it's lower regions that I would like you to fix. I know it's sudden, and you don't have a lot of time, but for the sake of possible future mouse-lets…" Melissa added, fighting back the grin as much as she could, and when that failed, trying to turn it into a shy smile.
Armsmaster had gone pale. Velocity was wheezing, Dragon spoke up.
"Melissa, I know that you know Armsmaster best, but adding additional features to your biology is probably not inside his specialty. If you feel that strongly about it, it would probably be better if I was the one assist you in trying to add genitals to Mayhem's work."
Aww, it was no fun if they worked it out. On the other hand, Dragon was offering to help with that small flaw with her new body, and given how limited the world's greatest Tinker's time was, that was an unexpected bonus. Melissa was going to have to work extra hard to get those two together as compensation.
Obviously Dragon was too smart to fall for the bait, but what if she pretended to seduce Dragon, so that Armsmaster was the one who got jealous? That could work, but she'd have to be rather blatant about it, because Armsmaster had the social senses of a turtle wearing a sweater. Hmm…
Or she could try that. It worked more often than people thought. It was just a matter of getting into Armsmaster's head. You had to think in straight lines. Current position and goal, and then ignore everything else, even if it was between you and that goal.
"Hey Armsmaster, Dragon is in love with you." She said.
Oh no. She wasn't trapped in here with them at all.