Turn 17

--- Maya ---

(How do we keep getting our asses kicked by a middle schooler!)

(Because she’s taking like five martial arts classes.)

(Why is she taking so many classes?!)

(I don’t know…)

Once more picking herself off the ground she rolled her shoulders, before once more taking a bastardized version of her sister’s stance.

“I’m surprised you’re still standing.” Izzy admitted. “Then again, I haven’t thrown you into the ground quite as many times as I did yesterday.”

“F-Screw you…” She gasped.

“Hey, I’m trying to be nice.” Izzy defended with a faux hurt look.

“You’re trying to be a smart mouth.” She argued, before glaring. “Which is my thing, so don’t go stealing my thing!”

Izzy gave a snort of amusement. “I’m pretty sure all of mom’s kids are smart mouths.”

“It’s the Latin blood.” She agreed with a thoughtful nod.

“Mm-hmm, you ready for another beating yet?” Her little sister asked.

With a resigned sigh she resumed her stance and nodded. “Let’s get this over with.”

---

“Okay, I’m willing to admit I have no idea what I’ve built here…” She told her other selves in the hopes that some part of her knew what they were doing.

(We’re building a foundation for our more organic projects.)

“I know that, but I mean what the fuck have we built?!” She repeated, gesturing to the shoebox sized… (abomination) she’d built.

The (thing) in question was on the outside a metal box, with bits of circuitry she could plug into her computer to tell the box what to do. This was the half of the invention that she was okay with. The part that she understood.

What was freaking her out however was the bubbling, mulchy liquid, that seemed to have tubes and veins connecting it and the machinery. A disgusting imagery that was made worse once one realized the more… solid, bits of the mulch seemed to be growing and shrinking with a steady pulse. Almost as if it were alive.

(I knew we were going to make god cry…) Her inner insanity admitted.

“I… it’s not alive.” She told her other selves. “It’s… It’s like an artificial womb. Yeah, the organic bits are… synthetic, not really alive.”

(Keep telling yourself that after we’ve unleashed the Zerg upon humanity.)

“It, it won’t get that bad.” She (lied to herself.)

“Hey! I’m not lying! If it turns out to really be evil, then I’ll… I don’t know, I’ll do something about it…”

(Either way we’ve still got a couple of days before it finishes growing.)

---

Taking a slight detour on her way towards the warehouse district, Maya stopped by the Trainyard to try and collect some scrap for a project she’d been meaning to get to work on.

Surprisingly enough, despite being covered in scrap metal, not all of it was legitimately useable. What with most of it being covered in a layer of rust.

That said, when she finally came across a piece of un-rusted metal, it was more than large enough to make up for the material’s scarcity.

(You know thinking about it, we probably should have scavenged the scrap on our way back to the house, rather than on our way to the Warehouse district.)

“We had to cross it either way on foot.” She reminded her other self.

(Perhaps, but it would be significantly easier if we didn’t have to lug ten pounds of metal around the entire time!)

“Eh, we’re putting all of that running to good use.”

(Yeah, got to build those muscles if we want to beat that middle schooler.)

---

(You know, I think you’re kind of failing your job right now.)

(What why?)

(Because we’re willingly wandering through one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the city!) Her inner passion yelled, as they cut through an alleyway between the various warehouses surrounding them.

“To be fair though, I’m not stupid enough to wander around without my COMP and my Hand Cannons.” She pointed out giving her gloves another tug, before stuffing them in her hoodie pockets.

(Still this is where people go to get mugged.) Her inner child told her petulantly.

“Which makes it the ideal place for an up and coming hero to patrol.” Her inner reason agreed. “At least once we have a base set up anyway.”

“Which is why we are actually here.” She reminded the voices in her head. “If we built a base in one of these warehouses, then we’d be close enough to keep an eye on the local gangs, as well as react if something big was going on in the city.”

(True, but we’d also run the risk of getting mugged every other trip to our base.)

(See, now you’re doing your job. Meaning it’s time to do mine… We don’t have to worry about getting mugged, they’re just easy XP.)

(Perhaps, but so much mask activity in a single location might draw attention to our base of operations.)

“Which would already be at risk, given how the more we build here the more likely we are to draw attention…” She sighed, before shaking her head. “Yeah, this place might be a little too high of a difficulty for us right now.”

(I suppose so, but-)

A loud crashing sound cut through her thoughts, as shattering glass tore through the air, forcing her to turn towards the source of the noise, where she saw blaring lights and sound.