Turn 13

--- Maya ---

As was becoming habit she and Izzy set out for their morning run together, and to her satisfaction her younger sister didn’t do anything to protest to her joining this time around.

Which while a good thing, meant she no longer had anything to focus on to help her forget about the fact that her everything was hurting.

“Why did we want to do this again?” She asked, through her burning lungs.

(I believe it’s largely because young Isabella told us we couldn’t.)

(Damn you reverse psychology!)

---

As she and Izzy got closer to the house, Maya decided it was best split off towards the bus, telling her younger sister that she needed to pick up some junk for one of her projects. Something that was quickly becoming her go to lie for her M.A.D. activities.

“Technically it’s not a lie.” She commented, as the bus pulled up to her destination. “I really do need to pick up more supplies for one of our projects, even if I haven’t actually started said project.”

She ignored the look the bus driver gave her for talking to herself as she stepped off the bus.

“Okay, so… Trainyard.” She stated as they walked up on it. “Pros, cons, what are we thinking?”

(Well there’s plenty of scrap we can use for our more mechanical projects.) Her inner reason pointed out.

“If we’re not afraid of tetanus.” She agreed, kicking aside a piece of metal that was more rust than useable metal, only for it to knock over a glass bottle. “And there’s that…”

(Yes, we aren’t the only ones who’d be visiting this area now are we…)

(That just means we’ll have to beat up the competition!)

(I think it’d be better if we kept the location of our base secret, at least until we can build up some defenses.)

(Bleh, best defense is a good offense!)

“Still, not sure if we want to risk a bunch of drunks stumbling onto our base. Especially since a lot of teen parties happen around here, which could be a problem.”

(Ah, right, Tommy’s band threw a party here once didn’t they?)

“Eh, more like they were invited to play for the party.” She remembered, while pulling open one of the train cars. “Might be able to hide a base, if we lock up one of these cars.”

(Still wish he’d let us tag along.)

(We’re underage, and there was alcohol present.)

(He’s underage!)

“I think there might’ve been drugs too.” She reminded them, as she climbed into the cart and gave it a look. “Mm, bit bigger than our room back home, and we won’t have to share with Izzy here.”

(Still, we’ll need to clean this place up some if we want to set up here.) Her inner logic pointed out. (Tetanus and all that.)

“Mm, might now be worth it between the drunks, parties, and rust.” She decided, “Either way we’ve still got a couple other places to check out before we decide.”

(True.)

“That said whether or not we set up shop there’s enough Scrap here to make it worth the occasional trip.”

(Speaking of since we’re already here…)

(No point letting all of the metal rust, heh-heh-heh.)

---

Once she’d returned home, she came to realize the only place left on their list of possible bases was the warehouse district. An area that had a fair amount of gang activity, even if it wasn’t from the big three.

As such she decided it was for the best to try and fit another upgrade to her Hand Cannons into her schedule. Namely optimizing them for whenever she used sound as their primary element.

With electricity there wasn’t much more she could do to it without increasing her chance of crippling someone outside of the heroic range. Sound however had a little more wiggle room, as it were.

By taking apart the speakers she’d gotten from Tommy and figuring out how to manipulate sound with her programs, she found a way to give her Hand Cannons a little more oomph. Allowing her to outright push objects away with her sound blasts rather than just amp-ing the force behind her blows like it had before.

It could still do that, but she felt the knockback effect to be a little more useful in the long run.

“Alright, testing… one… two… three… fire!” She shot her hand forward, throwing a burst of sonic energy at a can, impacting it hard enough to send it flying into the wall with an audible crunch. Something made only worse by the fact that her Hand Cannons on Sonic, were already much louder than she’d been anticipating. “Oh, shit!”

“WHAT DID YOU KIDS JUST BREAK?!”

“Wasn’t me!” “Not it!” “Nope!” Her siblings cried one after the other from their various places around the house.

(Do I even need to explain why that was a bad idea?)

“Shut up…”

---

Stashing her Hand Cannons and deciding that that was enough tinkering for one day, she got on her laptop to look up a topic that had been on her mind for several days now.

What exactly were Biotech M.A.D.s capable of?

Because while she couldn’t make everything they could, she was sure her brilliance could at least manage some of the low tier stuff. And given what she’d picked up about them during her research into M.A.D.s even the low tier stuff could prove useful to an up and coming hero.

“From the looks of it most Bio M.A.D.s tend to work either in the medical field or with plant matter.” She figured after reading through several pages. “You know, gene therapy for genetic diseases, or plants made to grow bigger, healthier, and tastier. Also, whoever made strawberry flavored broccoli is a genius. And why the fuck isn’t mom buying strawberry flavored broccoli?!”

(Makes sense. People probably get a little uppity when an M.A.D.s creations are ‘alive’ to the point of moving and breathing.) Her inner logic reasoned, purposely ignoring her non sequitur.

(Well, if that’s what all of the boring M.A.D.s are up to, then what are the villainous ones doing?) Her inner wild thing asked.

She went through several pages, before eventually coming across a series of news photos of what looked to be a giant frog-lizard hybrid in a cage, a giant humanoid insect with mantis arms dissected on a lab table, and a dog with tendrils erupting from its back lying dead on a concrete floor.

“Okay, so they make the monsters rejected from the Resident Evil games.”

(I don’t know that mantis thing looks more like a necromorph to me.)

She rolled her eyes. “The point stands, none of these are very friendly looking, and most of them are fodder enemies at best. Probably not worth it given how they all make you look like an instant villain.”

(Ooh, wait! Click that link to Nintendo!)

“What why would- They made real life Pokémon!” She squealed watching an adorable yellow mouse like creature playing with a bunch of kids. “How do I get one?”

(Mm, it says here they only made a handful of real Pokémon, and that they’re all sterile and largely depowered so as to keep them from becoming an actual threat to anyone. What’s more their all programmed to try and make their ways back home should anyone try and kidnap one.)

(Aww… I wanted a electric murder mouse to cuddle and sic on my enemies…)

Taking a moment to see what ideas the whispers were offering, she eventually nodded to herself. “It is decided then. We shall develop our biotech until we reach the point where we can create our own Poké-” –(It’s breaks copyright infringement for us to call them that in any way form or fashion.)- “Our own adorable murder pets!”