Turn 60

--- Maya ---

(See this is far more informative than that stuff with Jim.) Her inner madness told her as Melvin showed them how to best reinforce a metal structure with budget materials, something useful both for saving how much metal she needed for a project as well as increasing the armor of the various projects she built with metal. (Much more informative.)

(Yeesh, give the guy a break.) She told herself with a mental roll of the eyes. (It’s not like he was trying to set everything on fire.)

(Which is part of the problem!)

Shaking her head, she started messing with the welding tool Melvin had leant her -and that was giving her ideas for upgrading her own- before trying her hand at the technique he was showing her.

“Given how you’re probably new to all of this, I doubt you’re aware but there’s a fair amount of debate about whether you should use push or pull style welding. Now personally I find that the best rule of thumb is the saying, ‘if there’s slag then you drag’.” The older M.A.D. explained continuing to watch her carefully.

“And slag is?”

“Eh, it’s a protective filler commonly used in welding tools to help prevent oxinization of the metal.” Melvin answered easily, though in a tone that made her aware of just how amateurish it was. “Since it’s a nonmetallic byproduct you have to remove it when you’re done or else it can weaken the overall welding.”

“Huh…” (That’s something we’re going to want to remember going forward. Especially that part about preventing oxidation because I don’t think our current tools do that.)

---

Making her way back to her lab after a morning spent working at the M.A.D. club, she decided to go ahead and check to see if her Informant Network had discovered anything interesting about the drawings she’d scanned.

“And if we have a target to render comatose.” She made sure to add.

(Can’t forget that.)

(Quite.)

Shifting through the data her Network had gathered, she discovered that while her Informant Network hadn’t found the actual subject of Tommy’s drawings, it had more disturbingly enough found several very similar drawings floating around the internet. (All limited to our city too.)

“So it’s not just Tommy who got enslaved.” She frowned, looking the data over. “If this is an epidemic why isn’t anyone doing anything?”

(Incompetence and red tape?)

(Or perhaps because none of these cases lasted more than a day or two.) Her inner reason offered by contrast.

“What do you mean?” She asked, trying to see where her inner logic got that information.

(Each of these people only drew one or two images in contrast to Tommy who made dozens, if not hundreds of drawings.) Her inner reason pointed out. (Odds are that whatever is hitting everyone hit him harder than most.)

“That hunter girl did say something about an overcharged focusing charm…” She remembered thinking it over. “So whoever is throwing those out threw them at a bunch of people, and hit Tommy harder for some reason.”

(Perhaps, if they weren’t keeping track of who they’d already hit they may have targeted him once too many times with the same charm.)

“Even once is too many times.” She scoffed, before applying the address of all the artists she’d found to a map. “Damn it, I was hoping we’d have enough data to triangulate them or some shit.”

(Well, if they’re still charming people then that means they likely haven’t achieved whatever goal they have in mind.) Her inner reason pointed out. (Meaning they’ll keep charming more people and we’ll have more… data points to work with.)

She couldn’t help but grimace at that. “Seriously, there’s nothing else we can do? We just have to wait for the victims to keep stacking?”

(Other than hiring a Hunter or pulling a favor with Decker, there’s not much else we can do right now.) Her inner logic warned.

“Fucking… Shit!”

---

Setting aside the… troubling news she’d learned from her Informant Network, she instead focused on something she could actually do something about, namely the fact that she hadn’t realized that stalker was armed the night before. Which is why she disconnected her Scanner from her COMP and began working on a handful of upgrades to the delicate piece of equipment. Of course fitting the upgrades she needed to expand her scanning capabilities inside of said Scanner without making it overly bulky was a problem in itself, one her LCMs were happy to help with (their adorable little paws.)

“Alright, that looks like the last of it.” She nodded, as 1A locked the last piece into place and 1B… managed to avoid hurting himself.

Ignoring the narration in her head, she reattached her Scanner to her COMP and began testing the new data being gathered. “Mm, looks like I’m able to pick up the bits of metal and junk we’ve got stashed in the drawers and cabinets… but I can’t really make out the details of what they look like beyond these vague little blobs.”

(Just means we need a program to regulate the data a bit.) Her inner madness suggested helpfully (for once.) (Hey! I’m plenty helpful!)

(Debatable.)

(Screw you.)

“Hmm, well if I upgrade Scan a bit I can probably rig it to be able to determine what a target is carrying without overloading the data parsing.” She said more to herself than to… herself…

(Didn’t think that one through did you?)

(Shut up.)

---

“What are you all excited about?” She yawned wandering into the living room where all of her siblings were gathered around the TV.

“It’s that time of the year!” Izzy yelled in excitement, earning an amused look from Tommy and an exasperated one from Vi.

“Uh, Halloween?” She blinked, knowing that there was something there she was missing. (There is?)

(Oh, right, that thing!) Her inner madness said in an ‘ah-ha!’ kind of moment. (I completely forgot that that happens this time of year.)

(What happens this time of year?) She frowned, turning her attention to the TV where a (hot)redhead had her arm around a monster of some kind. (Do you have to hit on everything that moves?)

(I don’t know, do you?)

Shaking her head, she continued watching before it finally clicked that, “This is an ad for that Dungeon thing that that one Wonderlander does each year.”

“Yeah, Izzy gets excited for this every year.” Tommy nodded with a soft grin despite still looking a little worn down after the last couple of weeks.

“Despite the fact that she knows she’s not allowed to join in.” Vi added with a bit of a growl.

“What? Why not!” Izzy cried.

“Because you’re like twelve and this thing is dangerous.” Vi explained, being the responsible eldest child. “Honestly don’t know why they’re letting this thing slide, I mean it’s run by one of the town’s gangs.”

“It is?” She frowned, ignoring Izzy saying something about handing out powers, a thought that further scratched at the back of her mind.

“Yeah, this whole thing is some public Gamer’s Guild event they throw each year.” Vi shrugged. “Honestly, I think it’s just a way for them to try and drum up new recruits or something.”

“Well that and the tourists,” Tommy pointed out. “I actually think that’s why the city ‘s let it slide the last couple of years.”

“Huh…”

(Well, this is concerning.) Her inner reason admitted.

(Especially since Izzy really wants to go to this thing.) She had to agree.

(Eh, I doubt the rents ‘ll let it slide after the shit with Tommy.) Her inner passion dismissed, before continuing with the fact that, (We might want to give it a look though.)

(Why?) She couldn’t help but ask herself.

(Because this girl ‘s clearly a friend of Decker, and might be up to the same kind of shady stuff.) Her inner madness explained, completely glossing over the actual reason of wanting to pick a fight with a fellow Deviant. (Oh, I’m not hiding that at all. Especially not after the way Decker humiliated us the other month.)

(Point.) She admitted, watching as the redhead leaned towards the camera with a mad grin on her face.

“-if you feel like trying your luck come on down to play. We guarantee one insanely good time!”

(Well, that sounds like they’re the ones picking a fight.)