As Marvel grabbed her morning coffee, Cortex entered the room. He actually cleaned up rather nicely; he made sure his hair had been brushed, and he wore fresh new clothes instead of the same ratty lab coat he had been wearing for two weeks straight.
Marvel still couldn't quite help but snicker at him, remembering how tired and loopy he was before. Oh, how she would love to use that picture against him as blackmail someday...
"Mornin', Boss. Get plenty of rest?"
"Stop calling me—" Cortex cut himself off and shook his head. "Forget it. Yes...good morning."
"You sure look snazzy. Are you going to a party or something?" she asked.
Cortex rolled his eyes. "I'm just heading out to my Iceberg Lab to check up on some things." He was about to walk out the door, but then quickly turned to face her, as if remembering something. "Oh, listen...while I'm gone, could you just...keep an eye Nina for me? I mean, I usually leave her by herself, but recently, I've been rather hesitant to do so..." His tone turned sour.
"Why? She seems like she can take care of herself pretty well, right?" Marvel was confused.
"That's exactly what I thought until I discovered half of my lab had blown up one day after I left her alone for 30 minutes." Cortex clenched his fists, and Marvel got the point.
"Gotcha. Don't worry. I'm not going anywhere, so I'll make sure she's fine," Marvel told him, trying not to laugh.
Cortex sighed with relief. Normally Uka-Uka could look after Nina, but the mask was nowhere to be seen at the moment, so Cortex assumed he was busy. Not that Cortex didn't trust any of his minions to look over Nina, either, but you could never be too careful. "Thank you. I'll be back in an hour or two." He turned around and left, shutting the door behind him.
Once a couple minutes went by, Marvel started thinking. She hadn't seen much of Nina ever since she first arrived, and when they did see each other, they didn't say much—just an occasional 'hello' or 'good morning'. Marvel smiled. She wanted to get to know Nina better, so she decided to do something nice for her.
Marvel's first stop was the kitchen. Ever since she was younger, baking was one of her favorite pastimes, and she absolutely loved to make whatever she wanted. She started looking through the cupboards, pulling out various ingredients.
Hmm...maybe some sugar cookies! Her mouth watered just at the thought.
Snapping her fingers, she dashed over to her room and started digging through her bags. Because of her passion for baking, she definitely made sure she had brought all of her own utensils and ingredients, especially since she didn't know what was available here. Along with her supplies was an apron, which she immediately put on. With that, Marvel scrambled back into the kitchen and started preparing her lovely cookies.
30 minutes passed, and the sugar cookies were all done. Marvel hummed happily as she opened the oven, screeching when she realized she had forgotten her oven mitts. In an instant, she grabbed a pair of gloves sitting on the counter and shoved them on, quickly pulling out the pan of cookies.
"Woo..." She sighed with relief as she set the pan onto the counter. "Wow. That just proves how long I've gone without cooking." She chuckled.
Pretty soon, Marvel heard footsteps come down the stairs. She looked up from the pan and saw Nina, her hair a little messy and still wearing her pajamas.
"Good morning, Nina!" Marvel smiled.
Nina nodded, still pretty tired, but as soon as she caught sight of the cookies, her eyes shot open wide. "Are those cookies?"
"Yep. Made 'em myself," Marvel beamed proudly. "They just got done, so feel free to have one!"
"Wow." Nina took one. "I haven't had cookies in forever. Thanks!"
"I take it your uncle's not the best cook?" Marvel stifled a laugh.
Nina took a bite of the cookie and shook her head. "He can hardly even work a microwave properly."
Marvel laughed out loud. "Well, you don't have to worry about that anymore. I used to cook and bake all the time back when I was living on my own. One of my greatest passions!"
Nina raised a brow. "How did you get all the ingredients for these cookies? I didn't think Uncle Cortex had any."
"Trust me, I came prepared." Marvel winked. "I've brought all kinds of ingredients from home."
"Can I have another?" Nina picked up another cookie.
"Be my guest. I made these for you, after all."
"Me?" Nina looked surprised.
Marvel shrugged. "Well, I just felt like doing something nice for you. I don't want you to think of me as just some crazy woman who works for your uncle." She paused, then laughed some more. "Okay, by all means, that may be true, but still." She placed a hand on Nina's shoulder. "I can see that you sort of lack a...female role model. Er, not that I'm the best role model, so to say, but...you can just think of me as some crazy, long-lost cousin or whatever!" She smiled.
Nina just blinked at her.
"Alright, bad analogy." Marvel scratched her head. "The point is...I'm obviously here to stay. And as long as I'm staying, I wanna make sure that we don't get off the wrong foot or anything, y'know?" she said, hoping Nina understood what she meant.
Nina grinned. "Oh, no worries. As soon as I heard about you back-talking my uncle, I knew you were going to be awesome."
"Heh heh...thanks!" Marvel snickered. Once she took a cookie for herself, she looked at the clock. "Well...it looks like your uncle won't be back until over an hour or so...is there anything you'd like to do before he gets back?"
Nina shrugged. "I dunno. I was just up in my room trying to fix one of my laser guns, so I might get back to doing that," she said.
"Oh cool! Mind if I join you?" Marvel asked. "Cortex wants me to get the hang of fixing machinery, and maybe starting with something small like a laser gun will help."
"I don't see why not." Nina led her up to her room.
About an hour later, Cortex entered his lair only to find the main room completely empty. He blinked, expecting Marvel to be waiting for him, but shook it off. She was probably in her room or something.
"Marvel!?"
"Quick! He's here!" a voice whispered, presumably from behind the couch.
Cortex frowned. "Hello?" He took one step forward, but instantly regretted it as two figures leapt up, one possessing some sort of laser gun. The last thing Cortex saw was a giant pink blob hitting him square in the face before he felt himself smack onto the wall. His feet never touched the ground, and he discovered he was stuck.
"HA!" Nina high-fived Marvel, who was wielding the gun. "My bubblegum gun actually works! Great job fixing it, Marvel."
Marvel beamed. "Well, I learned from the best."
"This is the start of a beautiful friendship!" Nina grinned as they both happily left the room, leaving poor Cortex struggling to get free from the wall.
"DON'T JUST LEAVE ME HERE!"