Realign 14.3.5
It should not come as a surprise that Dragon's manufacturing plant has a lounge room, but it does. After all, before being converted into a Unison Device and then hiring Tim, it was not as if she was in a position to enjoy physical comforts, and as this is one of her main plants, it is almost fully automated.
You do not ask why she had it built, though, in part because you can spot what looks almost like a nest made out of fluffy towels in the corner. If this room doubles as her bedroom, you would prefer not to bring too much potentially embarrassing attention to it.
Tim sits on the lone couch in the room, flipping through anatomical diagrams and holding an intense telepathic conversation with Dragon. You sit in a chair, just watching the rest of the room. Samantha leans against the wall behind you. Missy is the only person who seems at ease, sitting in another chair and letting the bright yellow electric gerbil climb all over her and softly smiling to herself.
With a sigh, Tim banishes the screens he had been examining back to Sextant's memory banks. "Missy."
"Yeah?"
"What you're asking for…" He frowns and scrubs at one cheek for a moment. "The surgery I could probably do with a reasonable margin of safety. Most of the hurdles I'd be concerned about I took care of when I replaced the muscles in your chest. But the mutation…"
She tilts her head. "You don't think you could do it?"
"I think it's insanely risky." Tim sighs. "I know we've done plenty of procedure on you already, but I'd really prefer if we had your guardian involved in this one."
He does not say 'parents', thankfully. You mentioned that to him at one point or another, but now that you think about it, you do not know if you ever told him who Missy's guardian actually is.
"You want me to ask Miss Militia for permission?" Missy asks in a scoffing voice. "No."
"She is your legal guardian. You can't keep her in the dark just because you don't want her to refuse to permit something. If you were not a cape and did not therefore have a legal identity that gives you wiggle room around the normal limits of your age, she would have needed to give her consent for any of the surgeries Tim has already done," Dragon reminds her. "This is a bigger change than giving you a high-tech prosthetic."
A sad smile slides onto Missy's lips. "There's a small problem with your plan. You two are reluctant to do this because you're worried about my safety. You're worried about me. If my concern was that Miss Militia would be hesitant about it or would say no because she was worried, too, I'd be willing to talk to her about it."
"You don't think she would be worried about you?"
Missy shakes her head. "Not in the way you are. She may be my legal guardian, but I don't trust her to make major decisions with my best interests in mind."
Silence follows in the wake of that bombshell.
"What… What makes you say that?" you finally ask. You are not sure you have ever seen Missy act this way. Angry and frustrated at being ignored by Miss Militia and Chevalier? Plenty of times. But not this resignation and dismissal.
"I spent two days in M/S quarantine," she reminds you. "I had lots of time and not much to do but think. I had plenty of things to think about, though. The difference between Missy and Vista was a big one. What I said about making a clean break from being Vista? That wasn't a spur of the moment thing." She grimaces. "I, uh, I've actually been working on my letter of resignation and all the paperwork that goes with it since we got back from Florida. I'm leaving the Wards."
You wince at that. "I guess you finally got fed up with Chevalier's restrictions?"
"No," she says, surprising you. "Or that's not the main reason, anyway. Actually, I think I understand what he was trying to do now. It just doesn't work, or at least won't work for me. He wanted me to separate being a hero from fighting criminals and villains. That doesn't make any sense. Fighting crime is the core of our job.
"What I need isn't to separate being Vista and acting like a hero. I need to learn how to be Missy and also be Vista. How to have a civilian life, not just a civilian name on paper. That's the biggest lesson I took away from this vacation." She sighs. "That's also why I have to quit the Wards. The Protectorate isn't somewhere I can learn to do that. We're always wearing our masks, figuratively and sometimes literally. There is no time to do anything outside of the Wards, either. There's always some training exercise or course we have to take or something else. It's funny," she adds, almost as though she is talking to herself, "but I used to like that part. I was always busy with something. Now I see the flaws. I need time and I need space to figure out my life, and I can't get it while I'm still part of the Protectorate."
"Which means you have already given up being Vista," Dragon says, earning a nod from Missy.
You look back and forth between the two of them. "Wait. Why does she have to give up being Vista? I thought you just said you wanted to learn how to be both?"
Missy waves for Dragon to explain things, then has to catch Zeus before he tumbles off her shoulder.
"A Protectorate cape's identity isn't just their name. It is their brand. The Protectorate made a large business out of selling cape merchandise, and in order to protect their claim to the profits they retain ownership of their capes' names and appearances and the associated image rights. It's part of the contract any cape joining any division of the Protectorate has to sign.
"From a marketing protective, Missy isn't Vista. She was just using Vista's likeness, and if she quits, she would no longer have the Protectorate's permission to do so. They, however, can continue to produce Vista-themed merchandise if they so choose, although with you being relatively new to Philadelphia and a Ward, they probably won't."
"That's…" You do not even know the right word for what you're feeling.
"Abhorrent?" Dragon suggests. "Absurd? Greedy? Yes, it is. Like I said when they let us out of quarantine, I have many reasons why I never joined the Protectorate. They have good people, as we have seen," she says with an offhanded wave towards the soon-to-be ex-Ward, "but as an organization? I have my reservations. It makes me extremely glad that being a Unison Device, I now no longer have to follow every one of their orders against my will."
"Anyway, that's going to cause friction all on its own," Missy says as she returns to her explanation. "But the main reason I don't trust Miss Militia is something I realized when I was deciding what to do. When she and Chevalier told me I couldn't patrol, they said it was because it was Protectorate rules and breaking them would bring the attention of the Youth Guard down on them. Then they talked about how it wasn't safe and other things, but if safety was the real hurdle something could have been arranged, some workaround or precaution or something. Nothing ever was. When they forbade me from using the combat arm, it was because a Ward with an armored arm and a particle cannon wasn't a good look for the Protectorate. Every time they said I couldn't do this or had to do that, the reason was never because it would help me or make me better. It was always because it was what was best for the company."
She looks at you again. "You said that I'm one of only a few Shaker 9s on this continent. You're right. When I leave, I take that power with me. That's not in the Protectorate's interests. And if you said you wanted to do something that would get rid of that power forever? That's even worse because then there's no chance that it can be brought back into the fold."
"Do you really think that would be the basis for Miss Militia's decision? Not that she would have justifiable concerns about what it could do to you?" asks Tim.
Missy bobs her head around as she considers her next words. "Chevalier I can understand making his decisions about me based on what the Protectorate needs. He's just my superior officer, and I'm the problem child. I get it. Miss Militia parroting the same reasons, never explaining why the decision is best for me personally? Never saying 'you need to make more friends' or 'I think you need to talk to someone about what happened in Brockton Bay before you go back on the streets'? Even the fact that she didn't have a word to say against the way things were run in the Bay but now all the rules Chevalier says I have to follow are set in stone? That isn't the behavior of a concerned guardian. Not as I see it, anyway, and I have first hand experience with parents who cared more about something else than they did me. I know what that looks like.
"If you ask her for permission to change my power, she will tell you no. But I guarantee it will be because she's looking out for the Protectorate, not Missy Biron."
By popular demand, the suggestion that Missy talk to Miss Militia about the Linker Core mutation. You can now see why I was laughing maniacally.
And with that out of the way, it is time to vote.
[ ] 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 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)
Also, if you wish to spend any of Tim's accumulated tech points, vote for what skill you want as well.