A Sad Boy in a Tree house
Chapter 47
Legacy of Gallifrey Part 1
Melissa fiddled with her pen as she stared at the white board before her, designs and equations all over it. She paced back and forth, her white lab coat covered in old stains fluttering behind her. The big reveal was today, no fancy announcement, no press conference, just introducing the next step in scientific leaps. They had a lot to catch up on if they wanted to get to the stars faster.
It was the dream, to go out there, to a distant planet teaming with life and advancements beyond what humanity had. There was a difference between hitching a ride and actually going out there by the efforts of everyone involved. Though, at this rate it was going to be her and her father's efforts. Whatever, they were still a part of humanity.
The reactor, while a massive leap was just a necessary component of something much bigger.
All she had to do was make sure there was absolutely nothing that would go wrong, failsafe on top of failsafe. "Tablet please."
Upon her request, a computer tablet floated towards her surrounded in a gentle waving field. She grabbed it, turning around and smiling at the child responsible for the action. "Thank you Eri."
"Mhm." The horned nodded happily, the appendage on her forehead marked with a glowing spiral that ascended to the tip. The light cut off, the pulsating light around the tablet dissipating to allow Melissa to tap away at it.
"Everything seems fine." The blonde frowned, not satisfied with the thousands of calculations telling her everything was in the green.
Eri noticed Melissa's worry, and went over to tug at the girl's lab coat. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing, the computer says it's fine, I can see that everythings fine." Melissa looked over her whiteboard, the equations all still fitting together perfectly.
"Then why are you worried?" Eri asked.
"I've, just got a bad feeling about this." She confessed, marching towards the window to gaze out towards the ocean waves crashing against I-island's edges.
"We could get help." Eri suggested as she stood on her tippy toes to also barely see out the same window.
Melissa put her hand on the incredibly human-like android's head. Feeling the hair flow through her fingers, just like the real thing. While Eri was originally designed based on the original from what the heroes saw of her personality, she was developing beyond the shy persona. Anyone would be shy if they had a vague sense of what was happening alongside being surrounded by strangers. But this Eri, had been such a helping hand to her work.
Since she didn't have a quirk, the horn was modified to have a basic hard light projection system designed to actually lift things around her. For the sake of a cover story, they elected to call her "quirk" unicorn. It looked like magic, Eri being able to manipulate so much around her with precision to help in Shields' work. Whether it was grabbing tools, lifting machinery, or piercing together parts of a whole.
"Yeah." Melissa nodded. "Maybe I should get someone to double check things before we test them."
"Who?"
"Well." The blonde hummed. "Papa was a part of the creation process, so he's in the same boat as I am. Hardly anyone on the island has the wide expertise to understand all of the systems. Even if we got a team, that could take months."
*Vwoorp* *VWOoorp* *VWOOORP* *VWOORP*
Melissa and Eri's hair whipped around the room as a sudden source of wind erupted. The TARDIS materialized before them in it's wooden glory.
"I think we found our person." Melissa smiled while folding her arms.
Once the time machine's form was completely visible, it let out a thud upon landing. Watching the door open, Melissa was ready to get the smartest person in the world to help on her project.
*Creak* The door opened, Mei leaping out with a beaming smile. "I-Island here I am!" She threw her arms towards the air. "You will now get to see first hand who the greatest inventor in the world is in person! The creator of fully integrated AI multi purpose androids, realistic hard light imagery, and even a power source that-"
"We have company." Maid-A tapped Mei's shoulder, getting the pinkette to now see before herself.
"Oh." Mei smirked towards Melissa and Eri. "Are you two here to ask for an update to Eri's particle spiral? I've thought of a dozen different ways we could increase her total output to over fourty percent of-"
"Mei." Izuku came out of the TARDIS. "Remember, we're here for a reason."
"I am too!" The pinkette whined. "This is my first time actually on I-island instead of being locked in your TARDIS! What other chance am I going to get to show off my greatest creations?!" She then motioned towards Eri and Maid-A, who acknowledged one another.
"Does that make you my sister?" Maid-A asked the horned girl. Eri just shrugged, not really knowing what was happening.
"Izuku." Melissa came forward to give the boy a hug. "It's good to see you again. I heard about…I'm sorry."
He merely nodded, returning the hug. They pulled away, Melissa seeing Izuku's appearance in more detail now. "Have you gotten taller?"
"A little."
"He's been gone for five years." Dreamer stepped out of the TARDIS, regretting her answer when she heard the rampant thoughts of both teens.
"WHAT?!" both human girls shouted. Izuku winced, now being checked over by both of them.
"Where did you go?"
"Was it dangerous?"
"Why were you gone for so long?"
"How come you aren't growing a beard?"
Izuku needed an out, a change in subject so he could actually get a proper focus instead of ramblings. That out was given to him by a very noticeable white board with math that was decades ahead of current technology.
"Did you come up with this?" Izuku asked as nudged his way past them.
Melissa immediately went up to the board, Mei following right behind them while eyeing the math with a frown.
"Yes." Melissa showed off her hard work. "I've just been going over simulations and safeties to make sure nothing goes wrong, but I can't help but feel like I missed something."
"It looks ok." Mei lazily looked over the board, mentally noting some things that were on it. "Bet I could do better."
"Mei." Izuku flicked a pencil at her, which Maid-A caught mid air. "Be nice, this is a lot more than what you've come up with."
"Hmph, rude." Mei folded her arms. "Five years made you mean."
"Well look at this!" Izuku threw his hands at the white board. "You realize how thorough she was?! I swear if you were this cautious I wouldn't have to constantly disable every improvised explosive device you made."
Melissa folded her arms, looking away as she stifled a chuckle.
"She's gotten better." Maid-A tried to defend her creator.
"Her last one got me stuck in the sixties." Izuku shared aloud.
"It didn't explode!" Mei shouted. "Not my fault I didn't know a full image of an angel becomes an angel!"
"And that's why I told you to make sure that above all else the sectional imagery system was on! A full image of an angel becomes an angel itself, and that was the whole point of having different portions of an angel rendered at a time!"
"I'm confused." Eri admitted as she looked between the older ones. Dreamer looked at the human like android that perfectly resembled her previous self. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she tried to see if she could read her techno thoughts. Nope, that's what she thought. Silence but she was beginning to not like that. The Dreamer couldn't tell what they were really thinking, what they were planning, what they wanted, or even what they didn't like. She decided she didn't like androids, and she didn't like one that reminded her of what she decided not to be like.
Timid, weak, helpless, everything she was when trapped in a drug dealer's basement. The Dreamer would never be like that again. Someone though, was thinking they looked like two cute little kids that should play together.
"Eri." Melissa spoke towards her little assistant. "Why don't you take-"
"The Dreamer." The ginger answered before Melissa could say the wrong name, the name of a dead girl. "I want to see it when you launch."
"You're LAUNCHING?!" Mei shouted with newfound energy. "Wait, these factors are huge! Do you plan on sending a country into space?!"
"No." Melissa smirked towards them. "Just a city."
A purple portal opened in a dark chamber, three figures stepping out into the dim light. Kurogiri, a villain composed of dark mist with glowing yellow eyes in the center of his wispy head. Tomura Shigaraki, a young man with white pale hands all over his outfit. FInally, Himiko Toga, the latest member of the squad with a simple beige cardigan and her ashy blonde hair in two messy buns.
Before them was a metal man in a thick chair composed of wires and pipes all running under the armor of the person before them.
Izuku Midoriya, the last cyberman.
"Oooo." Himiko began to skip up to the dormant boy, taking a knife out of her pocket and reaching up to slide the edge of her blade up the armor. "I've only ever seen pieces of these at a museum. But you've got a whole set!"
"It's not a collector's item." Tomura grumbled.
"He's not even an it." Kurogiri warned Toga, who tilted her head in slight confusion.
"Quirk Feed Active." The cyberman spoke, the blonde girl jumping back in response. "All systems functional."
"If you're back, did you find your secret twin?" Tomura asked while approaching the cyberman.
"IT'S ALIVE!" Himiko screamed with a wide grin, running up and reaching out to grab its head, only for her hands to go straight through two portals and away from the cyberman.
"Be cautious." Kurogiri warned her. "It was designed to take quirks, albeit temporarily."
"That fault has been corrected." The cyberman ominously informed them. "Subjects with suitable quirks have been upgraded to provide constant quirk supply."
"You didn't answer my question." Tomura growled as he approached the cybermen. "Where is the guy who feared a murderous trash can?"
"Genetic lock was established." The cyberman responded.
"So, where is he?" The man began to flex his fingers, more and more frustrated the longer this conversation was going.
"The genetic code no longer exists."
"You mean you forgot what you locked onto?!" Tomura screamed with utter rage, his fingers inches from the cyberman's face.
"Negative. My memory contains the genetic lock, all scanners functional, the genetic code no longer exists." The cyberman corrected.
"HOW?!" Tomura brushed his hands over the cyberman's helmet, a portion of the faceplate disintegrating to reveal an emerald eye with a heavily dilated pupil. "YOU CAN'T CHANGE YOUR CODE IN REAL LIFE!"
"Um, maybe you can't." Himiko smirked as she sat on the arm of the metal chair, twisting her knife in her fingers. "But I can."
The cyberman's head turned towards her slowly, his single eye looking straight at her. "Quirk: Transform, incompatible with current systems."
Himiko peeked at his single eye, the girl hunching over to look straight back at it. "So, do you have any blood left in you?"
"Affirmative. Your quirk relies on blood."
"Yep! Hope that doesn't hurt our relationship." The girl tried to gauge the emotionless boy, but he had no reaction, at least none she could see.
"I see you have come across a roadblock." The tv in the room flickered to life, static filling the screen.
"Sensei." Tomura was immediately calmed, walking over to the television in the corner to listen intently.
"I am aware of your struggles and know where your target hides."
The cyberman's gaze snapped towards the tv. "You have the location of the nonhuman Izuku Midoriya. You will reveal it."
Tomura just about lunged at the cyberman for demanding such information from All for One, but laughter was heard from the television.
"But of course, yet you will find that he has hidden himself in a secure location. More than UA currently has at the moment. Heroes flood the streets, security detects the smallest faults, and is beyond the reach of any country's influence."
"I-island." Tomura realized.
"Precisely. Your cyberman will need some assistance if he is to continue his mission, and possibly a few different quirks."
"Don't worry." The handsy man narrowed his eyes on the mechanical thing. "I'll make sure he gets it right."
"I leave it to you." The tv turned off, Tomura left to glare at the emotionless cyberman.
"You're main mission is a side quest now. If you can take out that faction, all of I-island, then that will damage the hero society of the world."
"Confirmed."
"Come on Kurogiri." Tomura turned around as the purple villain opened a portal to exit. "Let's go find some stealth quirks for him."
Himiko followed them, briefly turning back to give the cyberman a wide smirk. "I have a feeling I'll be joining you."
"It is likely."
"But what did you mean by non-human?"
David looked out the wide window on top of the central tower of the island. Several computers were next to it, all giving him access to several systems of the island. Security, plumbing, hvac, electrical, and even steering the island through the ocean. Normally they are anchored, but today was different. The anchors were already locked into their compartments, the metal city ready to go wherever he directed.
He just had to wait for Melissa to get up here so that they could input the command.
*ding*
That would be her at the elevator, he smiled warmly as the doors opened to reveal.
"You can read minds?" Eri asked Dreamer, who didn't seem very enthusiastic to talk to her android duplicate from a previous lifetime.
"Not yours." The Dreamer fiddled with her ginger hair. "Real people." She flinched, turning around to see Melissa looking not so happy and Izuku looking very stern.
"Sorry." The Dreamer apologized to Eri, and then to Maid-A.
"Izuku?" The man asked in some surprise, then immediately guessed why a timer traveler would be here at this very moment. "Are you here because-"
"No." Dreamer immediately answered. "There's a cyberman situation."
"Again?" David sighed. "I hope that means we don't have to cancel."
"Don't worry." Izuku smirked at him while putting a firm hand on Dreamer's shoulder. "He doesn't even know we're here."
A pink blur sped past him, darting up and grabbing David's hand to shake it rapidly. "Hello again Mr. Shield! I hope you managed to read over some of my latest baby designs! Even if the UN doesn't fully appreciate the potential of androids paired with self aware AI I'm sure here on I-island you can mass produce them without any legal ties!"
"Nice to see you again too Ms. Hatsume." The man chuckled, then saw his daughter come forward with Maid-A gently pulling Mei away from him.
Melissa beamed at him, then gave him a nod. "Izuku checked our work. We're good to go."
"Don't you mean your work?" David gave his daughter a tight hug. "You've passed my intelligence long ago."
"But who else can file patents better than you?" Melissa teased, earning a laugh from her father.
"You could easily get a lawyer to help with that. But, are you ready?"
Everyone went up to the windows, Mei bouncing on the balls of her feet while Maid-A mimicked her excitement. Eri stood proudly by her mother's side, smiling up towards her. Izuku took Dreamer by the hand and brought her to their own window, pointing out different spots of the island.
David went to the main control panel, Melissa standing directly in front of it with her hand holding a key. David pulled out a similar one, and the two in synch put their keys inside their respective slots, turned them to reveal a bright red button, and gave one last look to another.
"We're about to make history." David told his daughter. "Have any words to be cemented in the history books?"
"History shouldn't be remembered as words." Melissa reprimanded her father. "But as actions that spark a chain of events that bring about the future."
"Hm, nice choice of words." David patted his daughter's head. "I'll make sure history remembers them."
She pulled herself away from his hand as he chuckled. Her hand hovered over the button, hesitant about pushing it. "I can't help but feel nervous, like something's about to end."
"Maybe it would be your silent reputation." David reminded her. "Sure, Izuku is famous for having many degrees to say he's smart but you are about to lead humanity with your intelligence. Better a human than an alien."
He realized that might have sounded offensive, and turned apologetically towards Izuku who just waved it off. "Not worries, not even an alien at the moment."
He blinked, trying to wrap his head around that single sentence. "I'll get an explanation later, but for now, I'm going to watch my daughter change the world."
Nodding at her cue, Melissa pressed in the button. The island shook as several lights filled the panel with strands of numbers filling the screen.
Outside, they all saw the water rush by the island's walls. Six massive whirlpools were generated around the city in equal distance to one another. The ocean looked like it was sinking, revealing six glowing turbines that were funneling the water outside of them. The city continued to move away from the body of water, the giant turbines ejecting pillars of bright blue energy out of the coils on the bottom of their structures.
"Congratulations." Izuku complimented the two Shields. "You have successfully created mankind's first airborne colony."
"Wait!" Melissa spun around at Izuku. "Did you know this would happen?! You said first, does that mean we make more cities that stay in the air?!"
"...So about that cyberman."
The Dreamer walked down the hall alongside Maid-A and Eri. Why was she with them? They were quiet and right now all of them were thinking about math, math math science science and it was well above her current understanding. Yes she had been reading books lately and could grasp basic concepts, but right now she didn't know how to help track down a cyberman with multiple quirks.
When Izuku picked up on her discomfort, he proposed that she could go back to the TARDIS or hang out in Eri's room. Maid-A was there as supervision, her superior protocols allowing her to serve as a responsible baby sitter. Melissa could have put in the same types of code into Eri, but she was left more open with her coding to allow her to grow.
An android, designed with the capacity to grow up.
"Do you want to play a game?" Eri asked excitedly beside her.
"Oo, what kind of game?" Maid-A asked with equal excitement.
Were all androids easily excitable?
"I want to read something." The Dreamer responded.
"Do you like stories? What kind?" Eri questioned with more eagerness that The Dreamer cared for.
"Non fiction, or realistic fiction."
"That genre has expanded greatly in the past century." Maid-A began to explain as they took a turn. "It's even bigger when you take the existence of time travel, androids, aliens, and other concepts that we are aware of thanks to our close relations with Izuku."
She nodded, accepting that logic. The Dreamer was aware that Izuku, Mei, and Melissa all wanted her to have less bias against androids, part of their thinking on sending her alone with them.
The Dreamer had no issue against androids, she just had a problem that they took inspiration from dead people she knew. Maid-A oddly choosing Nejire's voice the same moment Nejire…she didn't want to think about it.
"Hey." Eri patted Maid-A's leg. "How come you know so much about movies?"
"I was created to process data much faster than the human mind is capable of. When I'm not simulating Mei's creations and calculating chances of error I am constantly absorbing and reviewing terabytes of content. It helps my understanding of various topics."
"Hold on." The Dreamer stopped walking. "You mean, you are constantly doing this?"
"Yes."
"Even now?"
"I just reviewed all Harry Potter content within this conversation."
"And you're just connected to the internet all the time?"
"I do have safeties to keep my mind clear of viruses and protected against digital attacks. Thankfully the chances of me being corrupted are low thanks to the alien technomorph technology integrated in my systems."
That explanation did little to ease her worries.
"I can't do that." Eri commented. "I'm only able to manually connect to specially designed computers to make sure I'm ok. Mom calls them my doctors. She says that the internet could corrupt my ino..inicin…ono-"
-Innocence." The Dreamer corrected. The three came up to a bedroom, Eri excitedly opening the door and showing it off to them.
The hybrid gasped, seeing just how…different the room was compared to her expectations.
Her ideal room when she arrived to the TARDIS, was covered with stuffed animals, soft things, and all sorts of cuddly creatures of fabric that made her feel safe. This was covered with random 3d puzzles, several do it your own kits, different crystals growing in dishes next to the window, and a stack of video games next to a tv.
Eri sat down in a bean bag, the one similar thing they shared in common as the little girl grabbed a controller. "Do you wanna play something?"
"I've..never played a video game." The Dreamer confessed.
"What?!" Eri got up, grabbed The Dreamer and tugged her towards the ground next to the flat screen. "I've got lots of games! Games with puzzles, games that let you create things, games that you shoot things, racing, adventure, choose your own story ones."
That last option stood out to her. "Choose your own story?"
Maid-A fell into routine, cleaning in the background as she participated in the conversation. "Choose your own story video games involve a basic setting where you choose what the main character does in the story. Often your decisions impact how the story will unfold. Some can appear small at first, but have significant impact later. Some games of this genre don't have large consequences or variations in endings, but most focus on letting you experience your own unique story out of hundreds of endings. Many players experience a new story each time they replay a single game."
"Can we play one like that?" The Dreamer asked.
"Sure!" Eri turned on her console, eagerly handing The Dreamer another controller.
The hybrid stared at it while holding it in her hands awkwardly. Eri was bouncing in her seat as the game started. Maid-A continued to clean in the background as silently as she could while the hybrid sat there in probably the most silence she was going to get for a while.
"I've never played a game with a friend before!" Eri exclaimed happily.
The Dreamer slowly turned towards the smaller girl. "You think, I'm your friend?"
The happiness vanished, Eri now lowering her head as she could barely look at Dreamer. "Do, you want to be my friend? I know I was made to look like how you used to. But I'm me now, not you. I mean not you you but you from before, you know?"
The Dreamer finally let out a smile. "Yeah, I know."
Izuku looked over the current systems, everything was fully operational as I-island ascended to the clouds. He just had to make sure all security was active. Cyberman technology stood out like a lantern among candles, so they should easily be able to detect it even if it does use portals to get inside. But it somehow managed to sneak into UA security, something that he personally checked over every now and then. It must be using a new quirk, but how many could it hold? It only seemed to demonstrate a couple quirks at the raid, butnowwiththatlargerarmtoreplacetheonetheDalekshotoffperhapstherewere..
David was next to him, checking between the oxygen generators and the air circulation of the city to make sure all its residents could breathe. He could hear Izuku's mutter storm next to him, the boy so focused on his task that he seemed to drown out everything else.
"So, how have you liked being human so far?" David threw out to start some form of conversation.
Izuku snapped out of his funk, now realizing there was someone else with him. "It's, weird. I don't mean to sound offensive but it's like I'm slower, can't think as fast, and honestly only having one heart is kind of gross."
The man didn't take offense, seeing in first person just how much a Time Lord's mind could do at such a young age. "Wouldn't having more hearts be gross?"
"No, it lets my body actually have the capacity to clean its own arteries." Izuku joked. "No wonder humans age so fast, you work so hard with bodies that can barely keep up for a few decades."
"Well." David looked out towards the vast city. "I think we do pretty good with the time we have."
"Yeah." Izuku admired the same view. "I guess you do."
The two stared out towards the horizon, clouds moving around them as the city floated through the air. It felt like at least an hour passed before David spoke.
"I wish my wife could be here to see this." David admitted aloud with a nostalgic expression. "She was always so optimistic, seeing the best in humanity and what it could do, even if we dragged our feet once quirks surfaced. I don't know how we even managed to get this far without her."
Izuku listened, staring longingly ahead at a future that could have been, should have been. "I wish I had someone here too, to share this with. At least you have family."
"What about Eri?" David asked him.
"She isn't Eri anymore." Izuku explained. "She's The Dreamer now."
"Right." The man nodded. "Part Time Lord though right?"
"In a way."
"Then that means you have family to share this with." David smiled towards the used to be Time Lord. "Even if it isn't your original one, you found her. A sister, or a daughter, actually what do you view her as?"
Izuku's lips ever so slightly smiled as he glanced back at the man. "Do I look like a father to you?"
"Not yet." The taller man shrugged. "But you're making a great one so far."
Izuku pondered on it, humming to himself over the idea of being a Dad. "Coming from you, that means a lot."
"I didn't do much." David admitted with defeat in his tone. "Just, when Melissa's mother died giving birth to her, I was left with a child and my work. Somehow, I ended up blending the two together to save myself a headache and involved Melissa in my projects, keeping her away from making new friends or going to a normal school. I wish I had given her the chance to experience a normal life."
Izuku shook his head, laughing as he thought about Melissa living a normal life. "She would have found a way to involve herself. My Dad, back on my home world, tried that with my oldest brother. He actually stowed away in my father's personal TARDIS a few times. I think you did great under the circumstances."
"Still." David rotated a knob to have the island rotate in place ever so slowly. "There were moments that I feel like I prioritized work over her. Just six months after my wife died I left Melissa on a rocket to investigate an anomaly, the one you helped us take care of."
"Hm." Izuku nodded, understanding that he wasn't perfect. Though he quirked a brow as he turned back towards David. "Melissa was seven at the time yeah?"
"Yeah." David smiled as he recalled that Christmas so long ago. "You should have stuck around that Christmas. She was so happy I was back and shared everything that 'Santa' gave her."
"The same year your wife died?" Izuku asked with a little more volume.
"It, was hard without her. It was her favorite holiday." The man looked at Izuku, seeing his focused expression again. "But yes, it was the same year."
"She died, giving birth to Melissa?" Izuku asked again.
"Yeah." David was taken aback by his sudden targeted questions. "That year."
"The same year that Melissa was seven years old?" Izuku asked one last time to David's confusion.
"Yes!" The man adjusted his glasses. "Why are you suddenly so interested?"
"Mr. Shield." The recently turned human looked deep into the man's eyes. "No one is born seven years old."
Of course David knew that. No one is born seven years old! It would contradict the statement itself if it was supposedly true. It confused him why Izuku was so hyper focused on how Melissa came about. His wife died giving birth to her, then that year he had to leave….a seven year old Melissa.
"What?" David felt himself feeling dizzy, he sat down as he grasped his own head. "No, that doesn't… I've known Melissa her whole life, I raised her. But, how could…why haven't I thought about it before?"
He began to question everything now, doubting what he believed to be fact now seen as fiction. His wife, his only daughter whose existence should be impossible. No it, wasn't possible. Did he even have a daughter? No, his wife was pregnant, and she died giving birth, and all of a sudden Melissa was in her life. That couldn't be true.
Just, who was Melissa?
Before he could think more on it Izuku began move towards the door in a swift march, which quirky turned into a light jog.
"Where are you going?" David called out to the boy.
"To speak to Melissa."
Mei would have stayed mad at Melissa showing off but the massive personal workroom she had was just…wow. Sure, the TARDIS had lots of neat toys but most of it was beyond her. Here, everything was cutting edge human tech.
A nano printer that could make things that were higher quality of that one cheater's quirk.
Micro plasma tools.
Multi use nanotech! Mei couldn't help but dip her hand in the silver pool that shifted with her touch. Bringing her hand up, the puddle in her hand washed over her arm and assimilated itself with her goggles.
Oh she could spend an eternity in this room.
"Come on." Melissa's glasses were glowing with their own HUD. The nanotech on Mei immediately obeying its master and slithering back into the metal pool. "We should get started on creating something to disable that cybertech without killing its host."
"Are you kidding me?!" Mei grabbed a nearby neural reader and clipped it to her ear. Then, dipped her arm in the nano pool. Pulling out her limb, designs flooding from her brain into the neural reader and commanding the nanites to create the vambrace she used in the sports festival plus more. She held up the gauntlet with glowing sections that thrummed with energy. "We could easily dismantle the cyberman with these babies! How small are they individually? Oh, that's how small. Wow, even this mind baby connected to Maid-A's overwhelming AI could take down an army of cybermen! There's no way we'll lose!"
"This ones different." Melissa overode Mei's controls and had the nanites flow into the pinkette's palm to be a small-scale model of the current cyberman they faced. "Izuku said that last time he fought it, it upgraded itself mid battle. Could you imagine what it could do if it upgraded itself with the technology in this room?"
"...Good point." Mei conceded, realizing how screwed they would be if the cyberman got its metal hands on this.
"That's why we're going to make sure to overload its systems. Software, and hardware to the point that while it's processing what's happening we can access the main computer." Melissa explained, already designing something on a holographic table.
Mei looked over Melissa's work, curious about the girl's creative process. "Why don't you just start making it?"
"Designing is the first step to making." Melissa rotated the current schematic. "You telling me you don't write anything down before hand?"
"Of course I do!" Mei folded her arms. "Only so that Power Loader and Teach can see."
"Wait." Melissa paused her process. "You're telling me you just, design it all in your head?"
"Well, yeah." Mei shrugged. "Don't you do it so you can get a proper grade?"
"...I haven't gone to school in a long time." Melissa admitted.
"WHAT?!" Mei jumped on the blonde. "You get to spend all day, no school, just making babies?!"
"Not babies!" Melissa hurriedly corrected the girl. "Inventions!"
"Same thing."
"They're really not."
"Then do you not consider Eri your daughter?"
"I." Melissa was stumped. "Androids are different."
"Well duh." Mei walked over to a different workbench, grabbing a nearby plate of metal and a handheld plasma cutter. "But they're still babies, just thinking ones."
"Let's change the subject." Melissa sent her newly created schematic to have the nanites do an test performance of it. Walking over to the pool, she held her hand out as a pistol like device materialized into her palm. "Why did Izuku make himself human? The mind of a Time Lord seems more useful than a human one."
"Well." Mei clanged away with a hammer. "The cyberman apparently got a genetic lock onto him, so no matter where we went or used stealth tech it kept finding us wherever we went on Earth. So, he simply changed his DNA so that it couldn't track us anymore."
"But." Melissa tried to wrap her head around it. "That would be rewriting everything in his body, including his nervous system. What kind of aesthetics could negate all of that pain?"
"He didn't use any." Mei said in a whisper, Melissa pausing her work to listen. "It was scary, his screaming as he kept trying to pry the machine off his head."
They went back to work in silence, Mei doing her best to move on from the horrible memory.
"It's ok though." Mei attempted to reassure Melissa. "Changing back to a Time Lord will be painless."
"Did he say that?" Melissa asked with some doubt.
Mei nearly hammered her finger as she looked up at Melissa. "He's not a liar."
"I didn't say he was." The blonde went back to her designs and altered a few things. "But, who would invent such a machine? One that caused so much pain and hardly served any purpose."
"Izuku said it was for Time Lords who wanted to hide." Mei answered. "Or wanted a new life, forgetting all about aliens and time travel and just be a simple human."
"Forgetting." Melissa said to herself. "Who would want to forget all of that?"
"Exactly!" Mei spun around with lots of pent up words. "I mean, all of that knowledge, all of that brian power! Why give that up and stuff it in a watch?!"
The daughter of the world's most renowned inventor set down her tools as she stared ahead. "A watch?"
"Yeah." Mei shrugged. "I guess he managed to compress all his Time Lord physiology into a dinky little watch."
"A pocket watch." The blonde inventor mused aloud, her hand fiddling in her coat.
"Yeah." Mei shook her head as she chuckled. "If you could compress all of that into something so small why make it into an outdated fashion piece?" As she went back to her work, something in the back of her mind bothered her. She wasn't the most social person, and wasn't good at conversation, but she had learned how to pick out things that didn't piece together.
Like how Melissa knew it was a pocket watch without Mei mentioning it. Turning around, she saw the inventor not inventing, but staring off into the corner of the room while her hand remained in her coat pocket.
"Whatcha got there?" Mei asked as she hesitantly approached.
"Hm?" Melissa rolled her head as she looked at the pinkette through her glasses. "Oh, just a trinket from my Mom." Pulling out something from her pocket, a silver chain was attached to it as it hung loosely in the air.
Mei's eyes zoomed towards her hand, her fingers wrapped tightly around whatever it was. "May I see it?"
The fingers relaxed, Melissa's gaze slowly drooping down towards her hand. Mei felt her heart rate rise seeing the item in her possession. Her first thought was that it was just a normal pocket watch, just a random coincidence. That was until Melissa turned it over in her palm, the symbols of circles and lines jutting through one another as if it was mapping out existence itself.
Melissa had a fob watch, and Mei couldn't look away. Her mind raced as she processed what this was, what it meant. The first reasonable part of her mind said that Melissa had just gotten her hands on Izuku's.
But his was slightly bigger, and brass colored. This was a different fob watch, with Gallifreyan writing on it. It was meant to turn a Time Lord into a human, the potential to rewrite their entire life to hide away. Izuku explained that he put the settings to just change him to human, but it could do so much more than that.
Melissa was a human, with a fob watch that turned Time Lords into humans.
There was one question that remained.
"Have you…" Mei felt her mouth go dry as the possibility sky rocketed. "..ever opened it?"
Melissa turned it back over in her hand, almost putting it back in her pocket but stopped. "It's broken."
"How do you know?" Mei asked again, Melissa staring back at the pocket watch with a distant gaze in her eyes.
"I…but it's…I've always had it and…" Melissa's thumb fiddled over the single button atop of it. With a single push, the faceplate opened.
Second Part coming this year.
If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, feel free to send them! That includes grammar mistakes. Please let me know and I'll fix them.
Harleking31: I think this chapter answered your question.
Geek-God of Speed: I thought about real weeping angels, but it didn't feel right and it would have raised a lot of questions and take more time in the story that would stretch things out too much. Also, the image of an angel becomes an angel was addressed in the last chapter, and this chapter for more clarification.
adislt: That question was addressed in that chapter, and now this one again.
I don't own anything except for a pretty sweet relationship.