Realign 14.3

Wednesday, August 3

The flash of orange light fades to reveal the Vancouver manufacturing plant that serves as Dragon's and Tim's primary workshop. You have taken to using the alcove where their teleporter pads are located as your general entry point to their lab – it is basically the one place you can be sure you won't appear on top of a Gear or a Tinker rushing about with who knows what in their hands – and it is thanks to this that you see the bright blue rings that signify someone using the pads for their intended purpose.

You also know of only two people who would be using it, so it is no great surprise when the rings and glow vanish to reveal Missy standing there. "Did Tim call you to see what he did, too?"

"Huh?" Missy says, looking at you in confusion. "What do you mean, what he did?"

"He sent me a message to come check something out. I don't know if he was excited or manic, but either way it came across as real mad scientist. Did you not get it?"

She pulls out a blocky phone and taps the screen a few times. "Oh! Yeah, I did. I must not have heard it come through." Her eyes flick over the screen, and she smiles faintly. "He does sound a little crazy, doesn't he?"

"That's what I told him when he showed me the message," Dragon's voice says. A few seconds later the fairy herself floated around the corner, a bright smile on her face. "He was going to send out a second message claiming he really wasn't crazy, but eventually I convinced him that probably would do more harm than good."

Both you and Missy laugh at that, and as the giggles fade you find yourself wondering something. "If you weren't coming by for that, was there something else you wanted to talk to him about?"

That question wipes the humor off her face, and she reaches up to tap on her left bicep where you know her prosthetic's connector ring is. "I actually wanted to talk to him about my arm."

"Oh? Is something the matter with it? Lost responsiveness, decreased sensation, phantom pains?" Dragon asks with obvious worry painted over her face.

"No, no, no! Nothing like that! It's just…" Missy nibbles on her bottom lip for a moment. "I noticed while we were in Florida that it's not easy hiding the connector. If I'm somewhere where it doesn't matter if anyone thinks it looks weird, like when you and I went on that world trip," she explains looking at you, "then it's fine, but if anyone looks too close it starts looking a little suspicious. It doesn't exactly look like a simple piece of jewelry or anything, you know?"

Dragon nods. "You are thinking about whether he can use a different mechanism to connect the prosthetic?"

"Not… well, yes and no. Yes, a different connector would probably do the job, but also maybe it's just in a bad place?"

A bad place? You have no idea what that means, and from the expression on Dragon's face, she doesn't either. "I don't understand. The connector is located where it is because that's where your natural arm ends…" She trails off and narrows her eyes at Missy. "What are you planning?"

"I must have missed something," you tell no one in particular as you look back and forth between the two of them.

"I just thought that if there has to be a seam or something between my body and the arm, maybe it would be more convenient to have it at the shoulder rather than the middle of my bicep? I mean, my combat arm has to fold out armor to cover the rest of the stump anyway, and it isn't like there's anything but metal and whatever he made the muscles out of in the first place so he could just whack the rest of the stump off and it would be fine and then it's probably easy to extend the arms to make up for what's gone and—"

"Missy! Breathe!" demands Dragon. Missy does just that and sucks up a lungful of air. Shaking her head, the Tinker says, "I don't know if you have considered all the ramifications of what you're asking. The generator that powers your current arms is located in your shoulder. It gets the fuel it needs to run from the remnants of your deltoid muscle. If Tim removes the remains of your organic arm, he has to build a new generator and hook it up directly to the artery that sent blood to that arm. It would be an extremely risky surgery."

"Couldn't he just clamp it or something? If it's supposed to go down my arm, then everything that needs blood from it is either already gone or would be by the end of the surgery. That should make it less risky."

"True…"

While Dragon is contemplating the mechanics of a surgery like this, a different issue has come to your own mind. "Doesn't school start on Monday for you, too?" At her nod, you continue, "If you're worried about people realizing something's different about you, going back to school with only one arm is a bad way to hide it."

"Ah, but that's why I want to talk to him about it today. If we do it sometime this week, I should have recovered enough that I can wear my civilian prosthetic to school on Monday. At least, I should if last time was any indication of how long it takes to heal up. He would need to focus on lengthening that arm first, but the combat arm can wait." A sheepish grin appears on her face. "Especially since I want to talk to him about some minor redesigns while he's working on it. It has plenty of bite, I don't have any complaints there, but it deserves a little more bark, you know? Somebody should be able to look at it and think 'Getting hit with that would be bad'."

A door opens on the other side of the room, and Tim's eyes light up. "Good, you're here! Come on, come on!"

"You look way too excited about this for someone Dragon had to push to start experimenting with mutations," you tell him as you slide past to enter the room beyond.

He chuckles at that comment and rubs the back of his head. "She told you about that, huh? There are still some ethical dilemmas to deal with with experimentation on humans, but I'll admit it was pretty fun to play around with.

"Anyway, welcome to the Zoo."

You have to blink in surprise when you see why he nicknamed this part of the workshop. There is another fabricator in the corner that has what looks like a coffee maker built into the top, wires connecting it to a mana collector that resembles a flower with solar panels in place of petals. In the middle of the room are a couple of stainless steel tables. Most of the room, however, is taken up by a multicolored maze of tunnels. It looks vaguely familiar, and it takes only a single glance at the animals within to figure out why. "You experimented on a bunch of hamsters?"

"Gerbils, actually. I needed a large number to experiment on, and apparently hamsters don't do well in groups." He shrugs. "It was news to me, too."

Missy is crouched down to look closer at them, and you join her to see just what monstrosities Tim has cooked up. It does not look like any two of the rodents has the same mutation. Some have scales, others horns. One scuttles around on ten tiny feet, and another has a flap of skin between its front and rear legs that reminds you of pictures of flying squirrels. None of them seem disturbed by the unnatural changes, and they race around the tunnels and connected cages with curious abandon.

"Did you even have a plan for what mutations you were giving them, or did you pick things at random?" you ask.

"I had a plan!" he says, shocked at the accusation. Before you can apologize, Dragon clears her throat and gives him a Look. "Well, for the first several, anyway. Then it was a question of how far I could push the mutations. Which actually leads to my special projects."

He waves at two more cages that are separate from the rest. One of them has a gerbil that honestly looks the most normal out of all of them barring its bright yellow fur. The other is more interesting, in part because it is swimming in an aquarium full of water without a speck of dry land to its name and in part because it has spiny frills along its neck and at the tuft of its tail. It is also completely hairless, displaying slick blue-grey skin for all the world to see.

"Meet Zeus and Ralph," he says proudly, pointing to the gerbils in turn.

"Zeus and Ralph," you repeat slowly. He nods, apparently not seeing anything wrong with those names. You point at the water-filled tank and say once more, "Ralph?"

Tim lets out what you are sure he will later describe as a 'manly' giggle. "Ralph. Because he can't." You stare at him in complete lack of comprehension, and he finally lowers himself to explain, "The mutation for him… didn't work out how I wanted. He doesn't have lungs anymore and instead grew gills, hence why he's in a fish tank. Whales and fish can't vomit."

"Yes they can." Dragon shakes her head at his display of ignorance. "They both vomit just like humans. In fact, ambergris, the proper term for whale vomit, was once considered a valuable find in the sea because it was an essential ingredient in perfumes and colognes."

You look to the side to find Missy has a face of horror that is a perfect match to your own. "That's disgusting," she says.

"Moving on," you cut in before Dragon can say anything else that makes you want to lose your own lunch. You were never one for lots of perfume, but you clearly remember Emma smelling like she had bathed in it. Which, in hindsight, means this information is also a little funny, but still mostly gross. "What stupid pun made you name Zeus?"

He shrugs. "No pun this time. It seemed appropriate considering he shoots little bolts of lightning when he's startled."

Missy stops in her tracks, her right hand reaching into Zeus's cage. The little rodent scurries over and gives one of her fingers a delicate sniff. "Shoots… lightning?" she asks in confusion. "What kind of mutations were you giving them in the first place?!"

You nod in agreement. "Especially Ralph. I thought you said the mutations developed to provide whatever benefit you were trying to give them. What in the world did you put that thing through for it to grow gills?"

"Ah." Tim rubbed the bridge of his nose for a moment before calling up a screen showing a mess of lines and dots that you suppose is whatever chemical or protein he developed. "These two were my test subjects to see if I could induce a mutation that produces a Linker Core. Zeus's test went fine. Ralph's? Less so."

"Wait. Wait, wait, wait." Missy points her finger at you. "Linker Core. That's what you have that lets you cast magic." You nod, only for her to move her finger to Tim. "And you can just make one out of nothing?!"

"Uh, technically it's not nothing—"

Missy is no longer listening. She pulls up the right sleeve of her t-shirt and holds out her arm with the elbow prominently exposed. "I want it."

"I don't— I don't have a vial of it just lying around!" He shakes his head. "And didn't you hear what I just said? I gave Zeus and Ralph the exact same serum. Zeus is fine. Ralph isn't. If I did inject you with it, there is no way to predict what would happen to you! You could turn into something like a Case-53 for all we know!"

"I heard you. I don't care." You stare at her in disbelief, and she is more than happy to explain. "If I get a Linker Core, I can have a Device. If I have a Device, I'm immune to Masters just like you are, Taylor. I never have to worry about somebody screwing with my head again." Her voice softens, and she looks away. "…Not like Ose did."

You grimace. Of course it would come back to the trauma she suffered at the Fallen's hands. She knows the only way to get perfect immunity from their Masters and Strangers or anyone else who could manipulate her mind is a Device. You should have realized she was going to jump on that possibility as soon as she knew about it.

"And when you grow gills or, I don't know, turn into a tree or something? What then?" Tim presses.

"I walk around with a fishbowl on my head? Or I sunbathe a lot?" She shakes her head. "Look, I get it. You're worried what it will do to me. And I really do appreciate that you're worrying about me! The thing is, I know nothing is without risks. Definitely nothing worth having. Even hearing about the risks, I think taking the serum will be worth it." She spreads her arms wide. "I'm not saying we have to do this right this second. I'm not saying we do it without some sort of planning for what we're going to do if I grow gills or something and need to be teleported somewhere I can survive. All I am saying is that I will accept even a terrible mutation without hesitation if it takes the chance of being Mastered away for good."

Even without looking, you know Dragon and Tim's minds have started spiraling down the paths of possibility, working on ways to make this course of action as safe as inherently random mutations can be. Because it is obvious that Missy will not let this go. There is still another aspect of this that you do not know if Missy knows, and perhaps it is because of your conversation with Standstill yesterday, but there is an element to this that you need to remind her about. "Getting a Device doesn't just make you immune to Masters. It also will burn out your powers. Permanently." That catches her by surprise, so you keep going. "You told Chevalier that you're one of, what, ten or eleven Shaker 9s on this entire continent? That power would be gone—"

"Being a Shaker 9 doesn't help much when someone can get in my head and make me think my enemies are friends and my friends are enemies, does it?" Missy mutters.

"No, it doesn't," you admit. "But what I don't think you've thought about is that warping space? That is Vista's hallmark." She blinks at you, lost at the implication. "If you lose your powers, you forever give up being Vista. And considering what we talked about on the beach…"

She does not remember how to be anything but a cape. If she is no longer Vista, you worry she will be unmoored without a firm identity in her own mind.

"That—" She cuts herself off, and a strange expression crosses her face. Part grimace, part scowl, and some other emotion glints in her eyes. Regret, maybe? You do not want to try piecing together what she is thinking, and when she notices you watching her face, she immediately forces her expression blank. "We both think it's time I figured out how to be Missy again, right? And neither of us knows how to do it without throwing me into the deep end.

"Maybe a clean break with Vista is the only way to do that."

It should not come as a surprise that Dragon's manufacturing plant has a lounge room, but it does. After all, before being converted into a Unison Device and then hiring Tim, it was not as if she was in a position to enjoy physical comforts, and as this is one of her main plants, it is almost fully automated.

You do not ask why she had it built, though, in part because you can spot what looks almost like a nest made out of fluffy towels in the corner. If this room doubles as her bedroom, you would prefer not to bring too much potentially embarrassing attention to it.

Tim sits on the lone couch in the room, flipping through anatomical diagrams and holding an intense telepathic conversation with Dragon. You sit in a chair, just watching the rest of the room. Samantha leans against the wall behind you. Missy is the only person who seems at ease, sitting in another chair and letting the bright yellow electric gerbil climb all over her and softly smiling to herself.

With a sigh, Tim banishes the screens he had been examining back to Sextant's memory banks. "Missy."

"Yeah?"

"What you're asking for…" He frowns and scrubs at one cheek for a moment. "The surgery I could probably do with a reasonable margin of safety. Most of the hurdles I'd be concerned about I took care of when I replaced the muscles in your chest. But the mutation…"

She tilts her head. "You don't think you could do it?"

"I think it's insanely risky." Tim sighs. "I know we've done plenty of procedure on you already, but I'd really prefer if we had your guardian involved in this one."

He does not say 'parents', thankfully. You mentioned that to him at one point or another, but now that you think about it, you do not know if you ever told him who Missy's guardian actually is.

"You want me to ask Miss Militia for permission?" Missy asks in a scoffing voice. "No."

"She is your legal guardian. You can't keep her in the dark just because you don't want her to refuse to permit something. If you were not a cape and did not therefore have a legal identity that gives you wiggle room around the normal limits of your age, she would have needed to give her consent for any of the surgeries Tim has already done," Dragon reminds her. "This is a bigger change than giving you a high-tech prosthetic."

A sad smile slides onto Missy's lips. "There's a small problem with your plan. You two are reluctant to do this because you're worried about my safety. You're worried about me. If my concern was that Miss Militia would be hesitant about it or would say no because she was worried, too, I'd be willing to talk to her about it."

"You don't think she would be worried about you?"

Missy shakes her head. "Not in the way you are. She may be my legal guardian, but I don't trust her to make major decisions with my best interests in mind."

Silence follows in the wake of that bombshell.

"What… What makes you say that?" you finally ask. You are not sure you have ever seen Missy act this way. Angry and frustrated at being ignored by Miss Militia and Chevalier? Plenty of times. But not this resignation and dismissal.

"I spent two days in M/S quarantine," she reminds you. "I had lots of time and not much to do but think. I had plenty of things to think about, though. The difference between Missy and Vista was a big one. What I said about making a clean break from being Vista? That wasn't a spur of the moment thing." She grimaces. "I, uh, I've actually been working on my letter of resignation and all the paperwork that goes with it since we got back from Florida. I'm leaving the Wards."

You wince at that. "I guess you finally got fed up with Chevalier's restrictions?"

"No," she says, surprising you. "Or that's not the main reason, anyway. Actually, I think I understand what he was trying to do now. It just doesn't work, or at least won't work for me. He wanted me to separate being a hero from fighting criminals and villains. That doesn't make any sense. Fighting crime is the core of our job.

"What I need isn't to separate being Vista and acting like a hero. I need to learn how to be Missy and also be Vista. How to have a civilian life, not just a civilian name on paper. That's the biggest lesson I took away from this vacation." She sighs. "That's also why I have to quit the Wards. The Protectorate isn't somewhere I can learn to do that. We're always wearing our masks, figuratively and sometimes literally. There is no time to do anything outside of the Wards, either. There's always some training exercise or course we have to take or something else. It's funny," she adds, almost as though she is talking to herself, "but I used to like that part. I was always busy with something. Now I see the flaws. I need time and I need space to figure out my life, and I can't get it while I'm still part of the Protectorate."

"Which means you have already given up being Vista," Dragon says, earning a nod from Missy.

You look back and forth between the two of them. "Wait. Why does she have to give up being Vista? I thought you just said you wanted to learn how to be both?"

Missy waves for Dragon to explain things, then has to catch Zeus before he tumbles off her shoulder.

"A Protectorate cape's identity isn't just their name. It is their brand. The Protectorate made a large business out of selling cape merchandise, and in order to protect their claim to the profits they retain ownership of their capes' names and appearances and the associated image rights. It's part of the contract any cape joining any division of the Protectorate has to sign.

"From a marketing protective, Missy isn't Vista. She was just using Vista's likeness, and if she quits, she would no longer have the Protectorate's permission to do so. They, however, can continue to produce Vista-themed merchandise if they so choose, although with you being relatively new to Philadelphia and a Ward, they probably won't."

"That's…" You do not even know the right word for what you're feeling.

"Abhorrent?" Dragon suggests. "Absurd? Greedy? Yes, it is. Like I said when they let us out of quarantine, I have many reasons why I never joined the Protectorate. They have good people, as we have seen," she says with an offhanded wave towards the soon-to-be ex-Ward, "but as an organization? I have my reservations. It makes me extremely glad that being a Unison Device, I now no longer have to follow every one of their orders against my will."

"Anyway, that's going to cause friction all on its own," Missy says as she returns to her explanation. "But the main reason I don't trust Miss Militia is something I realized when I was deciding what to do. When she and Chevalier told me I couldn't patrol, they said it was because it was Protectorate rules and breaking them would bring the attention of the Youth Guard down on them. Then they talked about how it wasn't safe and other things, but if safety was the real hurdle something could have been arranged, some workaround or precaution or something. Nothing ever was. When they forbade me from using the combat arm, it was because a Ward with an armored arm and a particle cannon wasn't a good look for the Protectorate. Every time they said I couldn't do this or had to do that, the reason was never because it would help me or make me better. It was always because it was what was best for the company."

She looks at you again. "You said that I'm one of only a few Shaker 9s on this continent. You're right. When I leave, I take that power with me. That's not in the Protectorate's interests. And if you said you wanted to do something that would get rid of that power forever? That's even worse because then there's no chance that it can be brought back into the fold."

"Do you really think that would be the basis for Miss Militia's decision? Not that she would have justifiable concerns about what it could do to you?" asks Tim.

Missy bobs her head around as she considers her next words. "Chevalier I can understand making his decisions about me based on what the Protectorate needs. He's just my superior officer, and I'm the problem child. I get it. Miss Militia parroting the same reasons, never explaining why the decision is best for me personally? Never saying 'you need to make more friends' or 'I think you need to talk to someone about what happened in Brockton Bay before you go back on the streets'? Even the fact that she didn't have a word to say against the way things were run in the Bay but now all the rules Chevalier says I have to follow are set in stone? That isn't the behavior of a concerned guardian. Not as I see it, anyway, and I have first hand experience with parents who cared more about something else than they did me. I know what that looks like.

"If you ask her for permission to change my power, she will tell you no. But I guarantee it will be because she's looking out for the Protectorate, not Missy Biron."

This chapter has been at the forefront of my mind for a while now, and Missy getting captured by the Fallen last arc was just the perfect opportunity to push the players into giving her magic. It's also why I've been churning these chapters out like a maniac lately.

Silently Watches out.