Turn 49

--- Maya ---

Maya stared at Izzy as she got ready for school.

After several minutes of this Izzy eventually sighed. “Alright, I’ll bite. What are you doing?”

“I’m figuring out how to make you forgive me.” She admitted seeing no reason not to.

“Have you hurt yourself in the last two weeks?” Izzy asked in a bored tone.

“No” (more than my usually klutzy self.)

“Then you’re forgiven.” Izzy told her.

“What? No.” She found herself frowning. “That’s not how that works.”

Izzy rolled her eyes. “Am I really one to hold a grudge?”

“You’re a Williams and mamá’s daughter.” She pointed out dryly.

“Against family.” Izzy tacked on with another -more pronounced- roll of her eyes.

“...” She narrowed her eyes in thought before shaking her head. “No.”

Izzy blinked. “No?”

“No, that’s not real forgiveness. So I don’t accept it.” Maya explained to her little sister.

The middle schooler pinched the bridge of her nose as if she didn’t understand, before finally sighing and saying, “What.”

“I really upset you, so that means I have to do something to make it up to you.” She elaborated.

“Such as not hurting yourself?” Izzy offered.

“No. That’s the easy way out.” She dismissed with a wave of her hand. “If I’m going to get you to forgive me then I’m going to make sure you really forgive me.”

(Whether you like it or not.) Her inner passion agreed.

“That’s… that’s not how that works.” Izzy told her, much in the same way she’d just told the middle schooler the same.

(Which means one of our ways is right, and given how we’re smarter, that means it’s automatically ours.) Her inner madness assured her.

(That’s… You do realize that’s not how that works at all, right?) Her inner

(My previous argument stands since I’m smarter than you.)

(But we’re the same person.)

(But I’m agreeing with Maya, which makes me the smarter sign of insanity, doesn’t it Maya?)

(Yes, yes it does.)

“Don’t worry, big sis is going to make it all up to you.” She promised.

(Yeah, we are going to make you forgive us so hard.)

Izzy seemed to shiver. “Uh, Maya, I don’t like that look you’re giving me.”

---

Given how she had a bit of time between classes, and the fact that she had a mind numbing amount of monotonous work to do, Maya spent this time filling in a few more entries into her drone language directory.

Or this was the plan until she heard a familiar voice causing trouble again.

(This bitch is not messing with one of our waifus!) Her inner madness challenged.

(It seems she is.) Her inner logic commented tersely as they saw several girls surrounding Aisha in one of the emptier halls.

(She isn’t one of our-)

“You see this is why you don’t have any friends.” Salvador laughed as Aisha backed herself into a corner.

(You know what nevermind.)

“Seriously Nyssa, you’re pulling this shit again?” She found herself asking, as she forced her way between Aisha and her bullies. “I thought Ying and I told you to back off!”

“Oh, right I almost forgot you took the nerd under your wing.” Nyssa scoffed, crossing her arms as she inspected the nails on one of her hands. “Then again I suppose this is what they mean by a ‘rat pack’.”

“Better a hood rat, than a rich bitch.” She shot back. “Especially one that needs to tear others down to feel good about themselves.”

“Oh, I don’t need to tear others down, I just need to look at you and immediately remember how good I’ve got it.” Nyssa admitted.

“Then if you feel so good about yourself why can’t you just leave Aisha alone?” She pressed taking a step forward.

“Didn’t you hear me?” Nyssa rolled her eyes. “I said I don’t need to tear others to feel good about myself. Not that it doesn’t serve a purpose.”

“What purpose can driving someone else to tears possibly serve?” She wondered aloud in sheer disbelief.

“Aren’t you supposed to be a genius of some kind?” Nyssa asked. “Figure it out. I mean given how you’ve latched onto Zhang I’d thought you already had.”

“Figured out what, that you’re a bitch?”

“No, how the real world works.” Nyssa told her plainly.

“And how -in your twisted world view- do you think the world works?” She had to ask.

Nyssa stared at her for a moment before smirking. “We both know Ying is the one in charge of your little duo, so anything I say here will be wasted. After all, while I may be a bitch, at least I’m not someone else’s.”

“The fuck is that supposed to mean?!”

“You’re smart, you’ll figure out.” Nyssa assured her before walking away.

“Hey, wait, you-argh!” She growled in frustration, knowing that she lost that argument but not really understanding how.

(Stupid rich socialites and their stupid fancy speak!)

“Fuck!” She cursed more for the sake of doing it than anything else.

“Sorry.” A timid voice called from behind her.

“Hmm?” She turned towards Aisha before blinking. “What, oh, no! You have nothing to apologize for!”

“But you had to step in and save me again.” Aisha argued.

“Well duh.” She snorted. “That’s what friends do.”

“But you shouldn’t have to solve my problems!” The other girl cried.

“I’m not, otherwise Nyssa wouldn’t be bullying you.” She pointed out. “But since I don’t actually know how to solve your problem,” (without gratuitous levels of violence) “I’m going to have to settle for backing you up.”

“But I…” Aisha looked down.

She couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “Look, you figure out how to deal with Nyssa and I’ll help you with that. Until then I’ll run interference, because either way I’ve got your back. And if that’s a problem, well… It’s your problem and you just told me not to solve those for you.”

Aisha blinked. “I-I…”

“You don’t have to call me captain, but we should get moving before the bell rings.” She told the other girl, taking her arm and dragging her along before she could put up anymore protest. (After all friends have each others’ backs whether they like it or not.)

---

“So how was school?” Vi asked, picking her up instead of their mamá since she had the day off from college.

“Eh, same old, same old.” She shrugged.

“Mm-hmm…” Vi nodded with a look that said she didn’t believe her but was willing to let it go for now. “So, we heading home, or did you want me to drop you off somewhere?”

“You’re offering?” She checked with a bit of surprise.

“Sure, I mean odds are you’re going to run off to do your own thing as soon as we get home anyway.” Vi pointed out in that way that wasn’t quite criticizing her but close. “Figure I might as well save you a trip.”

“Oh, well um…” She mumbled for a minute before pointing towards a nearby road. “In that case you’ll want to take a turn that way.”

“Alright.”

It took them another half hour or so of Maya giving directions, but eventually they pulled up in front of the old hospital she’d converted into her base.

(Are you sure it’s wise to show Vi our base?) Her inner logic queried. (We have an amount of evidence here we’d rather she not see.)

(Meh, she already knows we’re an M.A.D. so letting her know where we keep everything isn’t going to hurt us too badly.) She dismissed herself.

(This is so going to bite us in the ass.) Her inner madness giggled.

“Uh, I thought you said you were part of that M.A.D. club thing, isn’t this that old hospital?” Vi asked her with an audible concern. “I looked them up a bit and they didn’t mention anything about this place.”

“Oh, I’ve been coming here since before I joined the club.” She admitted. “And some of the stuff is hard to move so I sort of go back and forth between here and there.”

“And this place is… safe, right?” Vi asked with a grimace.

She rolled her eyes. “I’ve been coming here for like a month now, there’s nothing to worry about.” (As long as you ignore the ghosts and demon hallways.)

“Right…” Vi trailed off with a concerned look towards the hospital. “So uh, what kind of stuff do you have here, that you can’t move?”

“Mm, oh!” She thought about it for a moment before beginning to bounce in her seat. “Wait here just a moment!”

“Okay… I’ll just wait here outside of the murder hospital while you run in real quick.”

“Great!” She cheered before rushing inside for what was arguable her cutest invention(s), and returning a few minutes later.

“You know I was kind of joking when I told you to go inside.” Vi chuckled warily, having been waiting in the hospital lobby for her.

“Oh, well… Oops?” She shrugged, before shaking her head and reaching into her pocket. “Still you wanted to meet one of my inventions right?”

“Yes?” Vi nodded, sounding mildly confused about something.

“Then I present to you the LCMs!”

She held the two little critters out, causing them to glance around curiously before finally noticing Vi. 1A immediately proceeded to begin straightening out his fur, while 1B simply waved in his standard and friendly way.

Vi seemed to turn a shade paler for some reason. “You, uh, you made these little guys? How?”

“Oh, I made this little artificial pod thing that I can grow stuff in.” She explained. “Originally I only meant to grow one but I let them cook a little too long and ended up with twins.”

“Uh-huh, and what exactly do these two… do?” Vi asked, her voice taking on an odd pitch to it.

“They help me build my other inventions.” She answered petting her two LCMs.

“They…” Vi swallowed. “They help you build… other inventions?”

“Yep.”

“Mm.” Vi nodded, before walking away. “I’m going to need a minute.”

“Uh, everything okay?” She asked with a bit of concern.

“Just peachy.” Vi squeaked.

(Huh… I wonder what’s wrong?)

---

“Are you sure you don’t want me to give you a lift home?” Vi asked, her voice no longer doing that weird pitching thing. “I don’t mind sitting around for a little while.”

“I’m sure, there’s something I’ve got to finish up inside.” She told her sister, waving away the offer. “I’ll be home in time for dinner at the latest.”

“Fine, I guess…” Vi sighed, before giving her a look. “Just keep your phone on and call if anything happens.”

“Don’t worry I’ll be fine.” (As long as I don’t pick a fight with the ghost in the basement.) (Or the demonic hallway.) (Or the squirrels, can't forget those little fuckers.)

Vi gave her one more sigh before driving off and leaving her free to take the LCMs back to her lab so they could see just how well her newest program works.

Now while she had succeeded in completing her language program, due to the complexity of setting up a language it hadn’t gone quite to the scale she’d been hoping for. For you see, while her drones were better capable of understanding her words and even saying them thanks to their newly installed voice speakers, they still lacked the ability to properly string together full sentences. Instead they could only piece together simple sentences consisting of two or three words, much how most toddlers would manage.

“You know, I’m just realizing how hard it must be for toddlers to learn how to speak.” She admitted, unhooking the cables she’d used to install the new programs onto her drones.

(Well it does take most people years to be able to say their first word, and years more to say their first coherent sentence.) Her inner reason admitted.

(Which means our babies are going to be all the smarter having figured it out in just a month.) Her inner madness cackled.

“Of course, we made them after all.” She agreed as DM-1 and 2 blinked into life once more. “Okay, you two should be able to speak now. These are going to be your first words so I want you to think really hard about just what you two want to say, and say it.”

Both of her little drones nodded, then took a moment to process before DM-1 glanced at the LCMs and glanced back at her. There was a muffled sound from his speakers as he figured out how to work them properly, before raising two of his legs in the air and declaring. “I favorite minion!”

(Pfft! This arrogant!) Her inner passion broke down laughing, as even Maya was unable to keep a smile off of her face at her first minion’s declaration.

A declaration that 1A seemed to take some offense to if the way the little critter was chittering aggressively meant anything.

(It looks like sibling rivalries are going to be a thing.) Her inner logic observed with a dry sort of amusement.

“Eh, it was inevitable.” She shrugged, knowing all about sibling dynamics after being the middle child of five.

A tugging at her leg broke her out of her musings, and made her look down at DM-2 pawing at her pants, drawing a smile out of her as she looked at her youngest minion. “So we’ve heard what DM-1’s first words are, now what are yours going to be, sweetie?”

DM-2 seemed to process her questions before looking up at Maya and happily chirping. “Mama!”