After a few clicks, whirs, and time spent pretending to be reading, the machine finishes with its testing and its screen declares the chip suitable for use.

Natalie hits a button, gets no response, and therefore hits the button again much harder, two more times. Finally, there is a brief buzz and a small compartment spits out a fresh small anti-static case surrounding the chip, which she casually grabs and then stands up.

"Considering it's uhh, a bit of a challenge for a dog to pick their own location, if one of you could bring him to surgery room C with me to make the selection, unless you want me to pick somewhere at random." As Natalie starts heading over to open a locked door nearby to lead the way, Jonathan and Lucas both start speaking up at almost the same time.

"Oh, uh, actually he-" While Jonathan is about to point out that Willy is a strong independent dog that don't need no man, Lucas is of a differing thought process.

"I'll go!" Not even hesitating to make his favored child known, Lucas even reaches over to shake Jonathan's shoulder a bit to get him to stop talking.

Understanding that playtime is over, for now at least, Willy releases his bite on the diminutive Mind Flare toy, leaving it hanging freely from Miss Masher's slightly-elevated hand. He looks back and forth between the other two chew toys nearby, as well as Miss Masher herself, before tilting his head to the side, giving her puppy-dog eyes for a moment.

After being furiously cute-ed at, she'd probably stab someone right now if he asked her to, so when he noses his two other toys over near her she collects them and sits upright, ready to guard them with her life. Happily barking once, he walks over to stand next to Lucas, who is still waiting for Natalie to finish unlocking the heavily secured door.

Feeling awkward as a free action, Jonathan looks down at the seated-on-the-floor Miss Masher, then back over to the waiting Lucas and Willy, wondering what he should do. Realizing that if he wanted to follow Lucas that Miss Masher would definitely not stay behind by herself, he mostly stifles a small sigh and looks around the nearby area in pursuit of a seat for himself other than the ground. Noticing a decently sized padded bench against the wall separating I4 from the Municipal Clerk's Administrative Center, he opens and closes his mouth a few times before just walking over to sit down quietly.

While Natalie is letting Lucas and Willy in through the finally-unlocked door, Miss Masher stands up from her spot on the floor. After staring at them for a moment, she looks around and notices that Jonathan seems to be staying here. Realizing it would be weird for her to follow after them when he has opted to stay behind, she dusts herself off and walks over to sit on the bench next to him, making it create a distressing creaking sound when she sits down a bit too forcefully.

Jonathan was already looking down at his phone by the time Miss Masher came over, so the sudden shaking and noise of the abused bench had, of course, startled him. Jumping slightly and dropping his phone onto his lap, he looks up to see her looking directly at him. She drops Willy's chew dolls down onto her lap and folds her hands behind her head, leaning back against the wall while maintaining eye contact, all the while with a thoughtful expression across her face.

Seeing that Jonathan and Miss Masher aren't coming along, Natalie grins and chuckles as she looks through the window of the door at them sitting awkwardly on the bench together, diligently locking the door all over again while she watches.

"So uhh... How long have you known Xenoclast for?" Seeming to find a subject to break the silence between them, Miss Masher ventures into the terrifying world of small talk.

Jonathan had just picked his phone back up as she began speaking, he manages to smoothly turn it off as if that was his intent all along, looking back over at her.

"Oh, um, not... Not very long." Stammering out a technically correct statement, Jonathan's response proves insufficient for Miss Masher's liking.

"What, so like, a few years? Doesn't it take a while to decide to be someone's sidekick, even if there aren't many physical supes to choose from out here? Oh right, you're still pretty young, so you probably haven't had your powers for more than like... Two years tops? You seem to have pretty good control over it, so you were an early bloomer?" As Miss Masher's fairly normal questions continue, Jonathan grows increasingly nervous, given that the system would be part of nearly every factual answer.

"N-no. Um, I... I've only known him... For a d-day... An-and I, um, star-started my powers like... F-four months ago? Maybe?" As Jonathan manages to force out an honest answer Miss Masher's expression of incredulity is comical, to put it mildly.

"WHAT!?" As she shouts out her question, not only does Jonathan flinch, but there's the sound of a pen dropping across the room as even Timothy flinches from the sheer volume of it. "How the hell do you decide to be someone's sidekick in A DAY!? Wait, no, why the fuck did he even adopt you too!? Didn't you guys say it was because you both hate your parents and wanted to pull one over on them, how would he even know them enough to want to bother in just ONE DAY!? And! How could you possibly have that much control in only four months!? Are you some sort of prodigy!?" Asks the woman who, in not even five minutes total, decided she was best friends, no, rivals, with Lucas.

Unable to resist listening at this point, the actual prodigy across the room inexplicably has his feelings hurt.

Fighting the urge to completely lock up, or run away entirely, Jonathan has entered into full fidget mode. He probably would have plucked off every single button from both of his cuffs in about three seconds flat if it wasn't for the reinforced material binding it all together.

"It's... Well... I... Um... But, uh... Be-because..." Hunching forward defensively, Jonathan's voice falls quiet, to the point Miss Masher can barely hear him. "Even though he's a j-jerk, he-he's actually really nice, and... And... He felt bad for me. My-my parents kicked me out wh-when they realized I had powers, and, um, I was on the streets until he took me in. I... I guess I just practiced my powers a lot more than most people..." Even though his nervousness is from wanting to hide any traces of the system, enough legitimate raw emotion is also surfacing, making all of his stress responses seem reasonably explainable.

Inhaling a sharp breath, Miss Masher leans closer and rests a hand on his shoulder, causing him to flinch subconsciously. With the amount of anxious adrenaline that he's currently pumped full of, the tiniest bit of pressure from her and he'll be out the front door faster than she can blink.

"Those kinds of parents are the worst. We might have even done the same if one of us found you first. Calc was able to mostly hide her smarts, but there was no hiding the fact that Chi was disappearing randomly. When our folks realized that Calc was smarter than she should be, they kicked all three of us out, worried that I'd get something too. Heh, it's probably good for them that they did, I started a year younger than my sisters, I would have actually been a problem, unlike Calc and Chi. ...Fuckin' assholes." As Miss Masher expresses her genuine sympathy, as well as sharing some info on the sisterly trio's past, Jonathan relaxes significantly when he realizes she must have experienced something similar to what he was just going through one short day ago.

"You... You guys too? How di-did you get by? Oh no, before y-you got your strength, it must have been really REALLY hard for all of you..." As Jonathan puts more thought into it, he's distracted enough that his nervous stutter fades significantly. Taking into account that when supe girls powers develop alongside their puberty it generally happens two to three years younger than boys, the thought of two roughly 11-year-old girls with one 9-year-old girl having to go through what he barely survived is incredibly sobering.

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Lucas kills this chapter: 0

Lucas total kills: 7

Lucas deaths this chapter: 0

Lucas total deaths: 10

Lucas current GDV: 8.98

Lucas's fame level: 2.75* (Mostly just local)

Lucas's hero suspicion level: 1.5* (Only highly paranoid people)

Jonathan kills this chapter: 0

Jonathan total kills: 5

Jonathan deaths this chapter: 0

Jonathan total deaths: 2

Jonathan current GDV: 1.99 (+.01 net change)

Jonathan's fame level: 1.75* (Just local)

Jonathan's hero suspicion level: 1* (Only highly paranoid people)

Supervillain social circle size: 10 (I resisted the urge to have Lucas get Natalie's number off-screen. You need to know how tempted I was.)

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Little character theater:

Jonathan, thinking of the multiple times he probably would have died if it wasn't for his speed: No... No really, how are you all alive?

Willy, happily sniffing his way around the strange machinery for automated ID chip insertion: Bark-bark-bark?

Lucas is mostly paying attention to Natalie's explanations, but can't help occasionally glancing at Willy exploring the area. And at Natalie's chest.

427 is struggling to resist the urge to immediately regale Lucas with the real-time narrations of Jonathan's side that he's getting from 011, but manages to proverbially bite his tongue, knowing that it would be too much of a distraction for Lucas to handle.

Author, throwing their arms in the air: What the hell, if you can have some Timmy time, then you can have Jon time too. I might even tell you some of the sister's more specific stories, maybe.

Mr. Quacks, feeling a great deal of sympathy for Jonathan as well as the trio of sisters: Quack...