Finally one of the chapters in this arc I've been REALLY looking forwards to. 
Realign 14.3
Wednesday, August 3
The flash of orange light fades to reveal the Vancouver manufacturing plant that serves as Dragon's and Tim's primary workshop. You have taken to using the alcove where their teleporter pads are located as your general entry point to their lab – it is basically the one place you can be sure you won't appear on top of a Gear or a Tinker rushing about with who knows what in their hands – and it is thanks to this that you see the bright blue rings that signify someone using the pads for their intended purpose.
You also know of only two people who would be using it, so it is no great surprise when the rings and glow vanish to reveal Missy standing there. "Did Tim call you to see what he did, too?"
"Huh?" Missy says, looking at you in confusion. "What do you mean, what he did?"
"He sent me a message to come check something out. I don't know if he was excited or manic, but either way it came across as real mad scientist. Did you not get it?"
She pulls out a blocky phone and taps the screen a few times. "Oh! Yeah, I did. I must not have heard it come through." Her eyes flick over the screen, and she smiles faintly. "He does sound a little crazy, doesn't he?"
"That's what I told him when he showed me the message," Dragon's voice says. A few seconds later the fairy herself floated around the corner, a bright smile on her face. "He was going to send out a second message claiming he really wasn't crazy, but eventually I convinced him that probably would do more harm than good."
Both you and Missy laugh at that, and as the giggles fade you find yourself wondering something. "If you weren't coming by for that, was there something else you wanted to talk to him about?"
That question wipes the humor off her face, and she reaches up to tap on her left bicep where you know her prosthetic's connector ring is. "I actually wanted to talk to him about my arm."
"Oh? Is something the matter with it? Lost responsiveness, decreased sensation, phantom pains?" Dragon asks with obvious worry painted over her face.
"No, no, no! Nothing like that! It's just…" Missy nibbles on her bottom lip for a moment. "I noticed while we were in Florida that it's not easy hiding the connector. If I'm somewhere where it doesn't matter if anyone thinks it looks weird, like when you and I went on that world trip," she explains looking at you, "then it's fine, but if anyone looks too close it starts looking a little suspicious. It doesn't exactly look like a simple piece of jewelry or anything, you know?"
Dragon nods. "You are thinking about whether he can use a different mechanism to connect the prosthetic?"
"Not… well, yes and no. Yes, a different connector would probably do the job, but also maybe it's just in a bad place?"
A bad place? You have no idea what that means, and from the expression on Dragon's face, she doesn't either. "I don't understand. The connector is located where it is because that's where your natural arm ends…" She trails off and narrows her eyes at Missy. "What are you planning?"
"I must have missed something," you tell no one in particular as you look back and forth between the two of them.
"I just thought that if there has to be a seam or something between my body and the arm, maybe it would be more convenient to have it at the shoulder rather than the middle of my bicep? I mean, my combat arm has to fold out armor to cover the rest of the stump anyway, and it isn't like there's anything but metal and whatever he made the muscles out of in the first place so he could just whack the rest of the stump off and it would be fine and then it's probably easy to extend the arms to make up for what's gone and—"
"Missy! Breathe!" demands Dragon. Missy does just that and sucks up a lungful of air. Shaking her head, the Tinker says, "I don't know if you have considered all the ramifications of what you're asking. The generator that powers your current arms is located in your shoulder. It gets the fuel it needs to run from the remnants of your deltoid muscle. If Tim removes the remains of your organic arm, he has to build a new generator and hook it up directly to the artery that sent blood to that arm. It would be an extremely risky surgery."
"Couldn't he just clamp it or something? If it's supposed to go down my arm, then everything that needs blood from it is either already gone or would be by the end of the surgery. That should make it less risky."
"True…"
While Dragon is contemplating the mechanics of a surgery like this, a different issue has come to your own mind. "Doesn't school start on Monday for you, too?" At her nod, you continue, "If you're worried about people realizing something's different about you, going back to school with only one arm is a bad way to hide it."
"Ah, but that's why I want to talk to him about it today. If we do it sometime this week, I should have recovered enough that I can wear my civilian prosthetic to school on Monday. At least, I should if last time was any indication of how long it takes to heal up. He would need to focus on lengthening that arm first, but the combat arm can wait." A sheepish grin appears on her face. "Especially since I want to talk to him about some minor redesigns while he's working on it. It has plenty of bite, I don't have any complaints there, but it deserves a little more bark, you know? Somebody should be able to look at it and think
'Getting hit with that would be bad'."
A door opens on the other side of the room, and Tim's eyes light up. "Good, you're here! Come on, come on!"
"You look way too excited about this for someone Dragon had to push to start experimenting with mutations," you tell him as you slide past to enter the room beyond.
He chuckles at that comment and rubs the back of his head. "She told you about that, huh? There are still some ethical dilemmas to deal with with experimentation on humans, but I'll admit it was pretty fun to play around with.
"Anyway, welcome to the Zoo."
You have to blink in surprise when you see why he nicknamed this part of the workshop. There is another fabricator in the corner that has what looks like a coffee maker built into the top, wires connecting it to a mana collector that resembles a flower with solar panels in place of petals. In the middle of the room are a couple of stainless steel tables. Most of the room, however, is taken up by a multicolored maze of tunnels. It looks vaguely familiar, and it takes only a single glance at the animals within to figure out why. "You experimented on a bunch of hamsters?"
"Gerbils, actually. I needed a large number to experiment on, and apparently hamsters don't do well in groups." He shrugs. "It was news to me, too."
Missy is crouched down to look closer at them, and you join her to see just what monstrosities Tim has cooked up. It does not look like any two of the rodents has the same mutation. Some have scales, others horns. One scuttles around on ten tiny feet, and another has a flap of skin between its front and rear legs that reminds you of pictures of flying squirrels. None of them seem disturbed by the unnatural changes, and they race around the tunnels and connected cages with curious abandon.
"Did you even have a plan for what mutations you were giving them, or did you pick things at random?" you ask.
"I had a plan!" he says, shocked at the accusation. Before you can apologize, Dragon clears her throat and gives him a Look. "Well, for the first several, anyway. Then it was a question of how far I could push the mutations. Which actually leads to my special projects."
He waves at two more cages that are separate from the rest. One of them has a gerbil that honestly looks the most normal out of all of them barring its bright yellow fur. The other is more interesting, in part because it is swimming in an aquarium full of water without a speck of dry land to its name and in part because it has spiny frills along its neck and at the tuft of its tail. It is also completely hairless, displaying slick blue-grey skin for all the world to see.
"Meet Zeus and Ralph," he says proudly, pointing to the gerbils in turn.
"Zeus and Ralph," you repeat slowly. He nods, apparently not seeing anything wrong with those names. You point at the water-filled tank and say once more, "Ralph?"
Tim lets out what you are sure he will later describe as a 'manly' giggle. "Ralph. Because he can't." You stare at him in complete lack of comprehension, and he finally lowers himself to explain, "The mutation for him… didn't work out how I wanted. He doesn't have lungs anymore and instead grew gills, hence why he's in a fish tank. Whales and fish can't vomit."
"Yes they can." Dragon shakes her head at his display of ignorance. "They both vomit just like humans. In fact, ambergris, the proper term for whale vomit, was once considered a valuable find in the sea because it was an essential ingredient in perfumes and colognes."
You look to the side to find Missy has a face of horror that is a perfect match to your own. "That's disgusting," she says.
"Moving on," you cut in before Dragon can say anything else that makes you want to lose your own lunch. You were never one for lots of perfume, but you clearly remember Emma smelling like she had bathed in it. Which, in hindsight, means this information is also a little funny, but still mostly gross. "What stupid pun made you name Zeus?"
He shrugs. "No pun this time. It seemed appropriate considering he shoots little bolts of lightning when he's startled."
Missy stops in her tracks, her right hand reaching into Zeus's cage. The little rodent scurries over and gives one of her fingers a delicate sniff. "Shoots… lightning?" she asks in confusion. "What kind of mutations were you giving them in the first place?!"
You nod in agreement. "Especially Ralph. I thought you said the mutations developed to provide whatever benefit you were trying to give them. What in the world did you put that thing through for it to grow gills?"
"Ah." Tim rubbed the bridge of his nose for a moment before calling up a screen showing a mess of lines and dots that you suppose is whatever chemical or protein he developed. "These two were my test subjects to see if I could induce a mutation that produces a Linker Core. Zeus's test went fine. Ralph's? Less so."
"Wait. Wait, wait,
wait." Missy points her finger at you. "Linker Core. That's what you have that lets you cast magic." You nod, only for her to move her finger to Tim. "And you can just
make one out of nothing?!"
"Uh, technically it's not nothing—"
Missy is no longer listening. She pulls up the right sleeve of her t-shirt and holds out her arm with the elbow prominently exposed. "I want it."
"I don't— I don't have a vial of it just lying around!" He shakes his head. "And didn't you hear what I just said? I gave Zeus and Ralph the exact same serum. Zeus is fine. Ralph isn't. If I did inject you with it, there is no way to predict what would happen to you! You could turn into something like a Case-53 for all we know!"
"I heard you.
I don't care." You stare at her in disbelief, and she is more than happy to explain. "If I get a Linker Core, I can have a Device. If I have a Device, I'm immune to Masters just like you are, Taylor. I never have to worry about somebody screwing with my head again." Her voice softens, and she looks away. "…Not like Ose did."
You grimace. Of course it would come back to the trauma she suffered at the Fallen's hands. She knows the only way to get perfect immunity from their Masters and Strangers or anyone else who could manipulate her mind is a Device. You should have realized she was going to jump on that possibility as soon as she knew about it.
"And when you grow gills or, I don't know, turn into a tree or something? What then?" Tim presses.
"I walk around with a fishbowl on my head? Or I sunbathe a lot?" She shakes her head. "Look, I get it. You're worried what it will do to me. And I really do appreciate that you're worrying about me! The thing is, I know nothing is without risks. Definitely nothing worth having. Even hearing about the risks, I think taking the serum will be worth it." She spreads her arms wide. "I'm not saying we have to do this right this second. I'm not saying we do it without some sort of planning for what we're going to do if I grow gills or something and need to be teleported somewhere I can survive. All I am saying is that I will accept even a terrible mutation without hesitation if it takes the chance of being Mastered away for good."
Even without looking, you know Dragon and Tim's minds have started spiraling down the paths of possibility, working on ways to make this course of action as safe as inherently random mutations can be. Because it is obvious that Missy will not let this go. There is still another aspect of this that you do not know if Missy knows, and perhaps it is because of your conversation with Standstill yesterday, but there is an element to this that you need to remind her about. "Getting a Device doesn't just make you immune to Masters. It also will burn out your powers. Permanently." That catches her by surprise, so you keep going. "You told Chevalier that you're one of, what, ten or eleven Shaker 9s on this entire continent? That power would be gone—"
"Being a Shaker 9 doesn't help much when someone can get in my head and make me think my enemies are friends and my friends are enemies, does it?" Missy mutters.
"No, it doesn't," you admit. "But what I don't think you've thought about is that warping space? That is
Vista's hallmark." She blinks at you, lost at the implication. "If you lose your powers, you forever give up being Vista. And considering what we talked about on the beach…"
She does not remember how to be anything but a cape. If she is no longer Vista, you worry she will be unmoored without a firm identity in her own mind.
"That—" She cuts herself off, and a strange expression crosses her face. Part grimace, part scowl, and some other emotion glints in her eyes. Regret, maybe? You do not want to try piecing together what she is thinking, and when she notices you watching her face, she immediately forces her expression blank. "We both think it's time I figured out how to be Missy again, right? And neither of us knows how to do it without throwing me into the deep end.
"Maybe a clean break with Vista is the only way to do that."
Mutagenic Workshop updated.
Now you know what Tim's been working on. And like we all knew was going to happen, Missy instantly demanded a Linker Core mutation.
With that out of the way, it's time to vote on what Tim works on next. Since we're getting into the holiday season, a moratorium IS IN EFFECT though it will probably last longer than 24 hours. I can't say how long. I will post a new threadmark when the vote is officially open.
- Supervise the PRT's Gears (max 6 slots, 1 tech point for every 3 slots)
- Help out the Enforcers (max 6 slots, 1 tech point for every 3 slots)
- Resurgerize Missy and adapt her old arms (2 slots, 0 tech points)
- Brew a Linker Core mutagenic serum for Missy (1 slot, 1 tech point)
- Analyze Sparky's cannon (3 slots, 1 tech point)
- Pop Grey Boy's bubbles (max 4 slots, 3 bubbles per slot, 0 tech points)
- Something else from the "Ideas for Tim to Build" threadmark
- Write-in (subject to my approval)
