Act 1, Chapter 2
Months had gone by since Mina made the decision to partner up with Nefarious to conquer the "time machine". The work never got any easier and Nefarious was always very demanding. Luckily Mina was left on her own to work on the projects, so she didn't hear his constant yelling quite as often. The quiet was nice, but Mina felt bored not having anyone to talk to.
During a slow day, Nefarious decided to act out scenes of a soap opera that he had written himself, with a robot minion of his. In one hand was his script, in his other hand, a small blaster. "Let's try this again!" Nefarious asserted. His disinterested minion wasn't looking forward to the next several minutes as it shook its head while glancing through the script.
"ACTION-" Nefarious' command was interrupted by a knock on the door, followed by Mina's voice.
She called out, "Hey, Doctor?" She was barely loud enough to be heard from the other side of the door.
Nefarious' eyes widened in nervousness as he snatched his minion's script and scrambled to hide the loose papers and the blaster under the couch and coffee table. A few more pages flew free and Nefarious rushed to get them out of sight as he shouted back, "What is it?!"
"Can I come in for a second? I need help with something."
Nefarious groaned as he pressed a red button on his desk to open the door. Mina walked in with her head held high and hands in her pockets. The doctor sneered, "What is it that you can't figure out yourself?"
Mina's eyes glanced from the nervous minion back to her boss, "I just need help activating one of the outside transports."
Walking towards Mina with a quick pace, Nefarious accidentally stirred up a bit of wind that picked up a piece of the script that was hidden under the table. He opened his mouth only to be interrupted by the crinkling sound of the paper. He froze as Mina moved her attention down to the script as she read the title, "Night of the Living Squishies".
She smiled, "What's this?" She asked. "Are you writing a movie or something?"
Nefarious snatched up the paper. "Before you interrupted," He grumbled. "I was trying to rehearse a space opera that I have written..."
"Oooh can I watch?"
"Ugh. Fine."
Mina walked over to the couch where she sat with one leg crossed. Nefarious scowled at her ugly, squishy, beaming face. He ordered his minion to pick up the pieces of the scripts, forcing Mina to fold her legs up to her chest as it reached under the couch.
The awkward silence was finally broken as Nefarious shouted loudly enough to make both the minion and Mina jump, "ACTION! You'll never take me alive, Qwark!"
Nefarious waved his gun around as the minion stuttered its lines, "I-I will take you alive or dead!" The minion pretended to be shot and dramatically fell to the floor.
"You MORON!" Nefarious yelled. "You missed an entire segment of dialogue!"
Mina let out a snicker, "I'm sorry, I can't help it."
"I have feelings, you know." the minion responded.
"I just thought that was a little too dramatic."
"Ugh it's an opera!" Nefarious asserted as he rolled his eyes. "It's SUPPOSED to be dramatic!" Nefarious interjected.
"I know that. But a little more action could help make this scene fuller.-
"Well since YOU'RE such a good critic, why don't YOU act this out with me?!" Nefarious snatched the script from the other robot and threw it at Mina, smacking her in the face. She caught the papers and stood up from the couch to walk over to where Nefarious was standing.
"Act 4, scene 3.." Nefarious started again.
Mina corrected, "Act 3 scene 4, actually-"
"ACTION! You'll never take me alive, Qwark!"
"U-uhm I will take you alive or dead!" Mina's acting was barely any better than Nefarious'. The robot who acted out the scene to begin with was still in the room and decided to watch. Mina and Nefarious acted out a battle scene with Mina using her fingers as a gun and running around the room. She neglected to actually read the next few lines as she was too focused on the fact that Nefarious was chasing her with a real gun.
The two were then on opposite sides of the coffee table. When Mina leaned left, so did Nefarious. Then she tried leaning right, only for him to copy. She bolted to her right, then Nefarious called out his next line, "At long last, Qwark, you will die!"
Mina felt amused by the energetic 'acting' session, as her lips formed a tiny grin. The minion was still watching, yet constantly moved spots as the two 'actors' kept running around. Mina leaped over the couch in then jumped off the coffee table, only to end up rolling on the floor. She sat up to make eye-contact with Nefarious as he stood in front of her, glaring down.
Mina finally glanced to her script again, 'Qwark gets shot, immediately collapses' Okay, I got that part right.
Nefarious held his gun right at Mina's forehead. "Any last words?" Nefarious growled.
"Yes," Mina replied in a more well-acted tone. "I've always looked up to you. I only pushed you around because I've secretly admired you for all those years. And I knew I could never live up to your powerful image..." Wait… Huh?
Mina looked up with a confused expression as Nefarious stared back. They locked eyes for a solid three seconds before the robot from across the room interrupted; "Should I leave you two alone?"
"NO" Nefarious shouted back and threw his script at the robot.
Mina helped herself up off the floor. "So, how did I do?" She asked.
"What? Oh, y-you did fine." Nefarious responded with a slight crack in his voice. Mina's eyes widened at the attempted compliment. The minion started to inch away and rushed out of the room while Mina and Nefarious weren't looking.
"But you seriously need to educate yourself." Nefarious addressed. He put down his script then turned on the holo-vision to play a copy of the first season of 'Lance and Janice'.
"Oh no. That soap opera?" Mina cringed. "No way."
Multiple episodes later, Mina's eyeliner had completely run down her face, barely looking away from the steamy drama. She sat huddled up on the couch as Nefarious was sitting on the other end. "This show is so ridiculous." Mina pointed out. "I think I love it."
Nefarious let out a quiet snicker every time Mina had something to say about whatever was going on in each episode. He never spoke unless he was muttering the dialogue that he knew by heart. The conclusion of their current episode ended on Janice proclaiming that she would never leave Lance for his evil twin brother, Englebert.
"Okay, but can you imagine if Janice actually did go for Englebert?" Mina suggested. "Just think about how awkward the family reunions would be! Heh, it'd be funny, though."
"Shh!" Nefarious shushed her. "Keep watching! And... get your feet off my couch."
Mina readjusted her seating position and continued to have her eyes glued to the holo-vision. A few episodes later, Mina slowly drifted to sleep. Her head sank and jerked back up several times before she finally gave in. Nefarious paid no attention until he realized she had collapsed. Mina's pudgy face laid right up against his left arm. He cringed and shuddered in absolute horror. Regardless of her skin being false, it still felt like a squishy was touching him.
A moment went by before Nefarious concluded what he wanted to do. He attempted to keep Mina's head up with his right hand, to try and slide away to let her fully lay down on the couch. Nefarious had barely moved when he realized he had gotten his claws caught in Mina's short, fluffy hair. The robot remained quiet as he groaned in frustration, trying to untangle the brown locks from his joints; only to make it worse. Everytime Mina made a noise or moved, Nefarious would immediately sit back to his original position until she went still again. Finally, his sharp talons were freed and he was ready to move over-
Lawrence suddenly invited himself into the room, "Sir-"
Nefarious instantaneously got up from the couch, allowing Mina's head to drop and smack down, waking her up immediately. "LAWRENCE!" he yelled. "Knock before you enter!"
"Apologies, Sir..." Lawrence glanced over at a groggy and confused Mina; who was looking away from her boss and his butler. Lawrence informed Nefarious that he had work to attend to and should get right to it. The scientist growled in irritation but complied, leaving Mina behind.
After the two left, Mina came to the awkward realization that she was left alone in her boss' room; then made a more important realization that she spent hours alone with said boss. She looked around then wiped off her ruined eyeliner before leaving to return to her own room.
Mina sat at her couch and reached over to the coffee table to turn on the communicator. It had a long list of various employees and troopers who worked around the space station. She decided to call in a worker who specialized in giving massages. It didn't take more than a few minutes before it showed up. A knock was heard on the door.
"Come on in!" Mina called out.
The door opened and the bot entered the room. It looked just like any other of Nefarious' troops; a bit taller than Mina, transparent green dome, and two large pincers for hands that were connected to its body with flexible cords. It had one large glowing eye in the center of its blank face. It held its pincers together and didn't move another inch.
"Aww… don't be shy." Mina smiled and gestured for the bot to come closer. She laid down on her couch, "What's your name?"
"Huh? My name?" It asked in a slightly emotionless, robotic voice.
"Yeah!" Mina beamed.
"Oh. My serial number is RG-073."
"Hmm, could I possibly give you a nickname?"
"What do you have in mind?"
"How about… I dunno. Roger?"
"Sure… that sounds fine."
Mina felt out her hand, "Hi, Roger. My name is Mina. '' The two shook 'hands'.
He started carefully rubbing her shoulders and back. Roger struggled to work with her metallic dents underneath the layers of false organic materials -as well as Mina's bodysuit that she didn't feel like removing-. "So, what's your story, Roger?" Mina asked.
"I'm not one for storytelling," Roger continued rubbing her back. "But I'm incredibly interested in your story."
"Well, I've got lots of dents and bumps. So we'll be here a while. If you're willing to listen then I definitely have plenty to tell you."
Mina told Roger her story from when she was a teenager employed at MegaCorp in Bogon, to the accident, to her 'reformation', to her family being stuck in debt, all the way up to the present. Although she decided to leave out the parts of her story that included defeating Nefarious and destroying his biobliterator.
"What a strange way for a robot to live their life." said Roger. "I could never imagine intentionally appearing organic."
"And I'd give anything to be organic again." Mina affirmed. "Obviously, because I'm here.
Nefarious is so scary sometimes, don't you think?"
"Yes. He yells a lot." Roger rubbed out the last dent in Mina's back and helped her sit up. She began to wobble as she had gotten dizzy. Roger helped her remain still. "You must have incredibly talented skills if he recruited someone as young as you. Especially because you look organic. He hates them, you know."
"Yeah, I'm still in disbelief that he actually hired me. Also, Nefarious is a bit different from what I was expecting."
Roger tilted his head, "What do you mean?"
"Well, for one thing, he has a bunch of weird hobbies. I never would've thought he'd be that into holo-games and soap operas of all things. Can you imagine that? A big, scary supervillain who loves simple little things in life? But it's true. He gets really into them, too. It's kind of funny."
"You seem to enjoy talking about him."
"Hmm? Oh, I guess I was rambling a little too much-"
Before Mina could finish her sentence, Nefarious barged in, "MINA!" His yelling made both Mina and Roger jump. "Quit socializing with my minion and go out and fix the VX-99!"
"Ohh-kay..." She began, "Where is it?"
"Planet Terachnos. You'll need to fly yourself there. I have already uploaded the coordinates onto a small ship here at the station. Come with me."
As the two walked in silence, Mina's gaze was entirely focused on Nefarious as he was walking in front of her. The scientist caught Mina's stare in his peripheral vision and turned his head to look back at her. She quickly focused her sight down at her feet as her cheeks turned pink. The duo made it outside where the ships were being kept. Nefarious pointed out a dark purple, one-seated ship. The doctor made sure to give Mina a security card so that she would be able to come back to the station without issue. He watched as Mina climbed in, put on her seatbelt, and turned the machine on. "Oh, and one more thing," Nefarious hissed, "You had better come back."
Mina silented nodded her head as she lowered the door to the ship to fly off to Planet Terachnos. Mina let out a long groan as she continued flying. "What kind of mess have I gotten myself into?" She asked herself aloud.
Nefarious watched Mina as she flew off away from the Space Station. As soon as she disappeared from sight, he walked back inside to be greeted by Lawrence. "Sir," He began. "I have a theory that we should probably discuss."
"It had better be important, Lawrence."
"It's not as important as accessing Clank's memory-"
"Then I don't care." The doctor walked past Lawrence as he was heavily resisting the urge to respond with snarky remarks. Still, he felt his 'theory' was too important to go unmentioned.
"Sir, I think she likes you." He said.
"Wait, what?" Nefarious turned around.
"I'm serious. I think Mina is attracted to you."
"... Why?"
"I don't know, Sir. Why would anyone be attracted to you?"
Nefarious didn't pick up on his Butler's comment as he was too confused at the first statement. He had so much trouble processing it that he could only stutter and babble as he paced back and forth. Even a highly intelligent scientist couldn't figure out what to do with such information. "She really isn't anything like the rest of the Q-force, is she?" Nefarious speculated.
"Definitely not, Sir." Lawrence responded.
Nefarious stood with a smirk on his face and his arms crossed. "Hah! No wonder that squishy wannabe is so easily manipulated. Oh, the possibilities…"
Hey guys! In a couple days, I will be away on vacation for a week so I wanted to get this out before I left. Life's been a lot of ups and downs lately but I'm still working hard on all my projects. I've got lots more to share for when I come back so I hope to see you then!
