Act 1, Chapter 4
Content warning for this chapter: Consumption of alcohol. Please drink responsibly.
Two rounds into the Captain Qwark vs. Dr. Nefarious holo-game, Mina had been victorious both times. After each of her victories, the hyper young woman would shout with glee and jump in her seat; which was quite the annoyance to Nefarious. Seeing himself getting beat up by Qwark in the game was very humiliating. The doctor would groan and roll his eyes without a word, yet proceeded to continue playing.
Nefarious' scowl only grew as he was about to press 'play' once again. Mina glanced over to him and decided to poke fun at him, "What's wrong, Doctor?" She teased, "Didn't expect me to keep beating you?" Her smile disappeared after Nefarious refused to acknowledge her comment. He looked behind Mina and pointed, "Is someone knocking?" he asked.
Mina turned her head around to look at the door. As her sight was focused elsewhere, Nefarious quickly turned the 'power' button on her Player 2 controller off- completely disconnecting Mina from the game. "I don't think so-" Mina stopped talking the second she realized the game had started again.
She button mashed as she usually did, yet nothing was happening. Meanwhile, Nefarious was laughing maniacally as he controlled himself punching Qwark nonstop. "Wait, what the?!" Mina exclaimed while trying to move in-game. Mere seconds later, Nefarious had won the round.
Nefarious shouted out, "VICTORY!"
Mina looked at her controller and realized none of the buttons were lit. "Did you…?" she inquired.
The doctor burst into laughter, "You fell for one of the oldest tricks in the book!" his voice slightly quieted down, "Moron…"
"You know, Doctor? You should have more respect for the morons of the universe," Mina huffed, "Considering you've hired one."
"Hah! You're actually admitting that you're a complete-"
"Oh, I was talking about Lawrence."
Nefarious paused in confusion, then howled even louder than before. He slapped his knee as he couldn't get himself to calm down. Mina sat back and kept her blissful eyes on him until he turned his head to look at her. Nefarious chuckled, "It's true."
The duo made eye contact for a solid second before immediately shifting their attention back to the holo-game. Mina made sure her controller actually worked before the next round began. As the round proceeded, Mina was winning again almost right away. She gazed at Nefarious in amusement as he wouldn't stop groaning in frustration. Once again, Mina had won.
"How are you always beating ME?!" He exclaimed. "How is a SQUISHY better than me?!"
Mina groaned, put her controller on the coffee table, and sat back with her arms crossed. "I'm not a squishy. I'm a robot. You know that." she said.
"Yet you cover yourself in every disgusting cell that squishies have! It's a disgrace to your kind!"
"Whoa. Why are you just now lecturing me about my form? Maybe I like having smooth skin and soft hair."
"Where is your dignity?!"
"I lost that a long time ago."
Nefarious let out a loud groan as he threw his controller at the floor, making Mina jump. She began to shuffle further away while keeping her eyes on the doctor. "Robots are the greatest beings to ever exist in this universe!" Nefarious proclaimed. "Why would you want to be anything else?!"
Mina glared right at Nefarious and got up from her seat, staring down at him, "Because becoming one ruined my life. That's why." She turned away and walked out of the room.
Nefarious grimaced at her response, and scoffed in offense that his employee spoke so rudely to him. After leaving Nefarious in his room, Mina decided to walk around, hoping to clear her head. Her mind raced, Why am I still here? she thought to herself, I could leave at any point and I'd probably be perfectly okay. Finding work isn't going to be easy, though...
The young woman's thoughts went from working and paying off the debt, to the odd partnership she had formed with her boss. She leaned up against a wall and gently pressed her fingertips onto her forehead. Before she could think about anything else, Nefarious once again yelled into the station's speakers,
"MINA!"
She jumped. Not again. "What?!" Mina yelled back.
"Get back in here! I have more tasks for you!"
Mina rolled her eyes and gritted her teeth, He wants me in, then he wants me out. Then he wants me in, then he wants me out.
She proceeded to walk back into his room with a scowl on her face. Nefarious opened the door to allow Mina in. She entered with her shoulders slouched, "What? What is it now?"
"Must you always have an attitude?" Nefarious asked with an annoyed tone in his voice.
"Did you call me in just to give me another lecture?"
Nefarious screeched as he waved his arms around in utter frustration. Mina took a step back to make room for the rest of the temper tantrum. The doctor shouted, "You irritating little twit! Where do you get the gall to act the way you do?! You're the most incopetent employee I've ever had!"
"Alright." said Mina. "I guess I'll just leave and you'll have to find another genius engineer."
Nefarious continued his loud growling tantrum as he ended up malfunctioning, freezing in place, and playing a recording of Lance and Janice.
"Oh, Janice. Promise me you'll never leave me for that no good Englebert!"
"Oh, Lance. You know I never could!"
Mina's eyes popped wide open at the strange sight. Ratchet used to joke to Mina about that happening with Nefarious, but she didn't think he was being serious at all. She hesitated before swinging her open palm onto her boss' head, literally smacking him back into reality.
Nefarious fumed, "How DARE you lay your squishy hands on me!"
"I'm. Not. A squishy." Mina backtalked with her teeth gritted.
"You might as well be one with your hideous skin and hair, you moron!"
"Well, robots like Courtney Gears have a lot of squishy-like features. And you still liked HER!"
Nefarious' face went blank, then he raised his brows. Mina's face was frozen still with her unblinking eyes locked onto Nefarious. She looked away to scratch her head after she felt her face starting to burn.
The doctor put his hands on his hips, "What are you implying?" He inquired.
Oh crap. "I'm not implying anything." Mina responded, still looking off to her side.
"You're implying something." Nefarious asserted as he walked closer.
"So what were you calling me here for?"
"Don't try to change the subject you-"
Lawrence suddenly crept into the room. "Uhm, Sir?" He asked.
Nefarious rolled his eyes, "What is it Lawrence?"
"I regret to inform you that you are extremely behind on your work, Sir." Lawrence glanced at Mina then back at Nefarious, "Perhaps it has something to do with an overly persistent... distraction?" He added.
"Alright! Alright!" Nefarious put his hand on Mina's shoulder to gently push her off to the side. "Just shut up already!" He added as he swiftly walked out with Lawrence and closed the door behind him. Mina stared at the door as she tried to process what the hell just happened. She sat back down on the couch with her back slumped forward and held her chin on her hands. At that point, her entire head felt like it was on fire.
Mina completely embarrassed herself by revealing her feelings to Nefarious, before she even revealed it to herself. Then came the fun part: overthinking and overanalyzing. It wasn't just inappropriate to have romantic feelings for her boss, it was wrong. Because as she kept needing to remind herself, Nefarious wasn't just a boss. He was evil. He tried to take over Solana and almost killed Mina's best friends. She did her best to brush off the guilt of accepting the job offer from the doctor. But having feelings for him was a completely different story. She wouldn't stop asking herself, Why?
Regardless of the reasons, she knew there was no going back. Nefarious found out the truth, and there was no telling as to what that would mean for the rest of her employment. To ease her mind, Mina summoned a bottle of whiskey from the storage section of her watch. She took two big gulps before she decided to give herself more time before consuming any more. Aftering sitting in silence for a full minute, she swallowed the rest of the bottle, shuddering at the taste.
Immediately afterwards, she summoned another bottle. Several minutes passed and the second bottle was devoured. Mina's head buzzed and ached. Her hands and legs began to twitch and shake. She slowly laid down on the couch and she closed her eyes, but her mind was still very much awake. So, she took out another drink.
A half an hour later, Nefarious came back into the room and stopped dead in his tracks at the sight. "What are you still doing in here?" Nefarious asked.
"Just thinking." Mina responded, while looking up at the ceiling.
"About what?"
"Why do you care?"
"Who says I care?"
Mina smiled before she clumsily sat up and moved over to her right hand side of the couch, signifying that she was inviting Nefarious to sit with her. Another uncomfortable silence filled the room before Nefarious reluctantly decided to sit next to her, but not too close. "What is that stench?" Nefarious growled.
"It's whiskey." Mina summoned another bottle, "Want some?" Without saying anything, Nefarious decided to take the drink, as he enjoyed alcohol from time to time. "Y'know, I'm pretty excited about this whole time traveling thing." Mina continued talking as her speech started to slur. Whenever she spoke, she tilted her head back and forth slowly yet filled with energy. "I'm finally gonna get rid of this stupid robot body and my family won't be suffering anymore."
"Don't get too excited, Squishy Wannabe." Nefarious said before he swallowed the whole bottle in one gulp. "You might've done some good work around here, but you don't get to be any part of my plan to conquer the Great Clock!"
"'Great Clock'?" Mina tilted her head, "Is that what we're calling time machines now?"
They both stared at each other before they burst out laughing. "Do you have any more?" Nefarious asked while putting his empty bottle on the table. Mina pulled out two more bottles and handed one to her boss. He held his bottle up to Mina with an almost friendly smile on his face. Mina's eyes lit up as they clinked their bottles together.
"Sooo, uhhh…" Mina spoke while drinking at the same time. A few drops of whiskey trickled down her chin, "Whaddya doing with the time machine, anyway? Do I at least get to hear about it?"
Nefarious grunted, "You really want to know?"
Mina nodded.
"Come closer." Nefarious muttered. Mina leaned in as he darkly whispered in her ear, "I'm going to rewrite history. Every hero who ever triumphed will lose... Every villain who has been defeated will get a do-over..."
"Oh, cool."
The duo continued drinking more and more as the plan was discussed. Although Mina struggled to pay attention as her head buzzed and she felt the room spin. Every time either of them finished another bottle, Mina would pull out another one. Soon enough, both of them were extremely drunk.
"I have to admit, y-you're an amazing engineer," Nefarious stammered, "It's a shame your skills were wasted on the Q-Force. You could've been with me from the beginning!"
"No kidding." Her head twitched and jerked, "Can't believe I didn't think of this before. I dunno, Doctor. Sometimes I think my good guy friends don't even think about me. Clank's been missing for sooo long now… And Ratchet hasn't spoken to me in forever. But I know Ratchet very well, I know he's super close to finding Clank."
Nefarious cocked his head, "Yeah? You think so?"
Mina rested her head on the back of the couch, "Hey, remember when we all fought you?" She faltered, "Good times."
The two began to talk about that "good time" when they fought and what sort of injuries they gave to each other. "I directly shot you with my blaster and it didn't even put a crack on you!" Mina giggled, then practically inhaling more whiskey.
"You should've seen the look on your face when I turned around!" Nefarious choked out.
"I was in so much shock! I couldn't believe my 'flawless weapon' didn't do shit!"
The two broke out in laughter over the littlest things. Overall, having a good time with one another. Neither of them even thought about each other's status. They were just having fun. Both of the robots' bodies couldn't stay still for longer than a few seconds. They would either lunge their heads back and forth or flopped forward and backwards. It only got more severe as they wouldn't stop taking more drinks.
"I never understood why you never went down easily; it's because you're not even a squishy!" Nefarious laughed.
"Hah! Yeah… D-definitely a robot here." Mina responded.
Nefarious relaxed, "What do you actually look like, then?" He asked.
"Hm? Well uhh.." Mina began.
"Come on. I'm curious."
Without giving it much thought, Mina accessed the data on her watch that allows her to keep track of her prosthetics. She put the settings on her right arm to zero percent, which caused everything from her shoulder to her fingertips to peel and slowly disintegrate. Outcame a scrawny, grayish-blue metallic arm. "See?" Mina pointed out while moving around her fingers. Nefarious stared in awe as he knew for sure that she definitely wasn't lying about being a robot. At that point he finally didn't feel completely odd to be associating with her.
"And… the rest of you?" He subtly hinted.
"Well uhh.." Mina started, "I'm not sure I should."
"Why not?"
In a split second, a million thoughts went through Mina's head. Her face held a blank expression, yet her mind raced fast. Even in her wasted state, she knew she was about to reveal her true appearance to someone for the first time since obtaining the watch. Not even her closest friends had ever seen her like that. Yet she wasn't entirely opposed to the idea, she sort of liked the idea. And given the situation, she couldn't help it. Being intoxicated certainly didn't help her judgement, either. In her mind, it was almost a completely rational thing to do.
She changed the settings on her watch and turned off all prosthetics except the ones on her head. The rest of her skin, muscles, fat, and nerves, had broken down into nothing. Her blue body suit that she wore also disintegrated along with her synthetics, leaving her wearing only over sized jeans and shoes. Everything else from the neck down was completely exposed. Her robotic body was very lanky, especially compared to her chubby face. Her body consisted of the same blue and purple-ish grays as her arm. Nefarious continued to eye her from head to toe, making Mina feel both flattered and embarrassed. She refused to look in his direction as she crossed her arms over her chest, even though she had nothing to hide.
"What about your face?" Nefarious asked.
"I-I haven't even seen it since the accident." Mina stuttered.
"You're among another robot, Mina!" He said, "You have nothing to be ashamed of!"
Despite feeling very nervous, Mina decided to comply. She once again accessed her settings and turned off everything on her head. She shoved her face into her hands as she felt extremely dizzy. The skin melted into smaller and smaller particles until everything was completely gone, as well as her hair had fallen out. Mina lifted her head back up to lock eyes with a flushed Nefarious. Underneath her false skin, was a beautifully contoured metallic face. She had thin, arched eyebrows with bolts on both of them that resembled piercings, her nose was significantly smaller, and her eyes were black scleras with glowing green optics.
Mina was staring off to the side of the room, seeing double, as Nefarious didn't take his eyes off of her. She felt very embarrassed at what she just did, feeling completely exposed, also disliking not having any hair. Mina quickly grabbed her bottle and took another big gulp. "A-are you going to say something or are you just going to gawk at me?" She asked.
Nefarious still sat in complete, stoned silence, which was very unlike him. Mina knew for sure at that point that she had feelings for the mad scientist. And because Nefarious stared at her in such a way, she thought he may feel the same towards her. Having both of them being intoxicated, and caught up in the moment, she decided to be ballsy and move closer to him. "Come on, say something." She mumbled. "For a guy who's constantly yelling, you sure are quiet right now."
Still silence from him.
Mina's head tilted back and forth as her eyes looked all over Nefarious. "Byyy the way, how old are you?" she stammered, inching closer, "You barely look a day past 30-"
"What are you doing?" Nefarious raised an eyebrow.
"I'm just trying to make conversation."
"You're trying to flirt with me."
"HAH!" Mina choked out, bursting into laughter. "Okay, Mister Can I See Your Real Body and Face. I'm totally the one flirting here! Oh, wait. You're not a Mister. You're a Doctor. I never thought about that. Are you an actual doctor? You went through college and all that stuff?"
Nefarious' sensors rang loud due to Mina's jabbering. He did his best to keep his composure despite being almost as drunk as Mina was. He stayed completely still as his eyes scanned up and down the fellow robot. The doctor felt uncomfortable yet pleased with Mina's straight-forwardness about her feelings. While being sober earlier, Nefarious didn't know what to do with the idea that this strange young lady was actually interested in him. And he certainly didn't know what to do with her as they were both absolutely trashed. Nefarious couldn't figure out whether he wanted to literally throw her out of the room, or let her continue talking.
Mina's whole body wouldn't stop fidgeting. "I'm just sssayin'," She stumbled, "You and I have a lot in common. Way more than I ever would've thought, ya know? I think you're kiiind of amazing."
Nefarious knew he made the right decision of letting Mina continue talking. "Pfff- Hahaha! Of course you think I'm amazing! I am amazing!"
The young lady robot moved in even closer, putting her arm around Nefarious' shoulder. Her eyes fluttered as she had trouble focusing. Nefarious' smirk disappeared. Mina leaned her face in, "So, whaddya say we try something?"
Nefarious fell silent in uncertainty as he gave a slight glare. He started to tilt his head backwards yet decided not to move away. The more he looked into those captivating green orbs, the more he felt his gears turn faster.
"Don't worry, Doctor." Mina reassured, locking her hands around Nefarious' neck. "If you suck at this, we'll just use the time machine so it won't matter anymore-"
"If I SUCK?!" Nefarious exclaimed in offense, jerking back. "What makes you think I would SUCK at this?! How do I know YOU don't suck?!"
Mina's mouth formed a big grin. She tightened her arms. "You sound like you want to find out."
Nefarious fiercely stared into Mina's eyes, "If you tell anyone about this, I will kill you." Nefarious whispered intensely.
"Rrr-right back at ya," Mina smeared her speech. "No one has to know." Before the doctor had the chance to respond, Mina pressed her metal lips against his. Nefarious' wide-open, surprised eyes closed after realizing Mina wasn't going to pull away anytime soon. Both of them still understood who the other one was and how wrong it was to be doing what they were doing. But they didn't care.
Neither one of them showed signs of wanting to stop. Mina especially enjoyed herself as she could barely believe what was happening. Then again, she barely felt conscious. After a short moment, the mad scientist's hand traveled to Mina's shoulder and began to slowly bring her closer. It was at this point when things started to get too much for her; regardless of her impaired mind. Mina knew she had already gone too far several minutes ago. Every wire in her brain was yelling at her to stop.
Not wanting to go any further, she pulled away for a second before the psychopath went right back in for more. She backed up and stumbled off the couch, tripping over the coffee table. Her legs were shaking and wobbling like crazy. She clutched her forehead as she struggled to keep still standing up. "S-sorry, I just," Mina grumbled, "This feels very wrong."
Nefarious looked at his fellow robot with a rather offended look on his face. He's had a few partners before, and none of them ever stopped in the middle of a sensual moment. He felt especially exasperated because it was Mina who came onto him in the first place and persuaded him into it. "Well, fine then." Nefarious scoffed. "I guess I'll have to get back to business. You will soon have more work to get done. You better not disappoint me. '' His voice was so harsh and cold. It sent piercing feelings through Mina's body. As Nefarious left the room, he could barely keep his balance in his drunken haze. The door closed and a few seconds later, a very loud metallic THUD echoed. He had collapsed.
"Wow." Mina said aloud, "I wonder if I'll get a raise for that-" She instantaneously fell to the floor and blacked out.
Several hours later, Mina awoke in confusion as to where she was and what had happened. She was laying on the floor and her head hurt so bad she could barely lift it up. Looking around, Mina noticed a hoard of empty whiskey bottles scattered around the floor. She reached out her hand to grab one, and came to the horrifying realization that she didn't have her prosthetics on.
Mina shrieked and jerked up into a sitting position. She quickly turned her prosthetics back on and saw them slowly grow back from her watch. Her shoulders relaxed in relief, then she groaned and clutched her aching head. The room spun and Mina's sensors were ringing as loud as a fire alarm.
She could barely remember anything from the night before. But she did notice how strange it was that she woke up in Nefarious' office. The first vague memory that came back was Mina and Nefarious drinking and laughing together. Okay, that's a little weird. But kinda nice. Mina's prosthetics had completely regenerated as she continued trying to jog her own memory. She stumbled over to lay down on the couch.
Come on, Mina. Think. The next memory to pop up was when Mina willingly turned off all her false organic settings. Her mechanical stomach dropped at the thought that Nefarious had actually seen her that way. A more serious memory immediately flashed back: They kissed. A lot.
Mina's head spun and buzzed even worse than before. She let out a painful cry as she clutched her hair and laid in a fetal position. Her mind couldn't escape the images of what took place right before she passed out. The worst part was, she struggled to conclude whether or not she even regretted it. Sure, it was definitely wrong, but at the same time, she very much enjoyed it. She let go of her hair as she smiled to herself at the thought.
Then she shook her head in protest, "No." She said to herself. "This isn't right. He's my boss. He's a supervillain. He tried to take over Solana. I can't have a relationship with him!"
Just then, the door burst open, with Nefarious storming in, "AHEM!" He called out.
Mina flung from her laying position to sit up, holding her forehead.
Nefarious stomped over to the couch, glaring down at Mina, "We are getting close to conquering the time machine, and yet here you are, SLEEPING!" He scolded.
Mina grunted while refusing to make eye contact, "Uhh, I'm a little bit sick at the moment. Do I look like I'm in any condition to work right now?"
"Why you-"
"Just let me rest for a few more hours and I'll get right back to work. I won't let you down, okay?"
"Fine." He growled, "Don't keep me waiting too long, or I'm really going to hurt you."
Nefarious walked out of the room to leave Mina to sleep. Although it wasn't as if she could sleep peacefully. "What the hell was that?" She said aloud, "What's he so angry for?" The sobering reality began to hit her very hard. She knew she drank too much and knew she went too far, yet didn't feel as much remorse as she thought she should. She liked being intimate with him. She liked it a lot. And Nefarious seemed to like it, too. Although Mina didn't know if he could remember anything or not. He had to have remembered. What if he did? What if he didn't?
The overthinking anxiety attack once again sat in. It was something so bizarre, and unexpected. No matter how much Mina thought about it, she just couldn't explain her own feelings to herself. She couldn't understand how or why she and Nefarious shared romantic feelings. Especially since they were often very rude to each other. There was no telling as to what it meant for her future. Or the future of the galaxy. She could leave Nefarious and try to forget about what happened, or she could continue working alongside him, possibly having a more serious relationship with him.
"Welp, it's official. Now I'm in trouble."
