It certainly wasn't a ray gun.
The panel was stiff, but he lifted it to a ninety degree angle. Looking inside, he felt his jaw drop. He wasn't sure how to feel. Disgusted? Amazed? What the hell was he looking at? He felt both light-headed and too aware at the same time.
"Y- you weren't wrong," Tobey looked back at the false doctor, "This is… extraordinary…"
"Yeeoup."
He turned back, his face still plastered with complete bafflement.
Under the purple exterior on the back of Lady Redundant Woman was a mess of muscle, wires and ink cartridges. He thought he could even see a giant metal rod emerging from a strip of extra muscle, but it was so red, and he was starting to feel slightly sick. No matter how hard he tried, however, he couldn't tear his eyes from the small, open hatch.
"What do you think?"
The teen stepped back, still looking in complete horror at the mess of tangled wired that moved with every breath.
"I think this is an abomination of human creation and should have no way of working in the way it does."
Turning her head back to him, Lady Redundant responded, "I do not appreciate being called or titled as an 'abomination'."
"Sorry, Lady Redundant Woman," Tobey felt bad, "I didn't mean it like that."
"You are forgiven."
The room went silent once more. Two Brains was the first to break the silence.
"Seriously though, kid. Think you can work on it?"
"Wh-" he spun on his heel, "Why am I working on her?"
"Ah, yes, I should probably give context," the man scratched at the back of his neck and fell back onto his wheelie chair, "Okay, one day, Lady R just came into my base and complained that she's been getting sharps pains and whatever in her back and front where her printer half is. And she came to me first because, you know, I'm a doctor and such. So, I got her to sit and poked around a bit before realising she had that massive panel on the back of her. Honestly, I'd seen it so many times before but I never really noticed it. So, I opened it. And BOOM. She's a tried and true cyborg."
Tobey looked away and processed the story.
"Then… Why aren't you working on her?"
"Because, honestly, kid, I have no idea what the hell I'm doing when it comes to robots and machinery."
"But you make ray guns?"
"I take guns and make them change the chemistry or biology of whatever it fires at. That's hardly electronics then it is, well, chemistry."
It took Tobey another minute to really take in the situation. This was all so real, but it felt like it was coming straight out of a sci-fi movie. It was all so insane. It was all so interesting.
"Hey, if you're not interested, I'll just, I don't know. Hack some knowledge together and hope I don't kill her."
"Please," Lady Redundant finally turned, "Do not do that. I somewhat value my existence, my life."
The teen didn't really hear either of them. His mind was a mess. It felt like a moral dilemma, a scientific dilemma. She was a real cyborg. That was the stuff he used to dream about. He always wanted to work on a cyborg, but it just wasn't something he- or anyone else- considered really possible. He couldn't let this opportunity pass him by-
At the same time, if he did this, he'd be associating with the roots he was trying to pull up. Was it worth it? To live a dream he'd had since a bright-eyed child? No, he needed to focus on school. Go to uni. He needed to go to uni-
"Kid," the scientist clapped for his attention, "you want to work on a real cyborg, or not?"
"OF COURSE I DO!"
Did he really mean that? He hoped he didn't, but he said it anyway.
A toothy grin smeared it's way across Two Brains' face, "I knew you'd come around eventually."
"Do not get me wrong," Tobey turned back to Lady Redundant, "I still think the mere existence of this is seriously scientifically dubious, but this is the stuff of my sci-fi dreams!"
Two Brains chuckled at this sudden newfound enthusiasm. The teen started to pace with excitement, "I gotta brush up on my biology- study the makeup of inkjet and laser printers and- and draw up some plans-!"
"Halt, cease, stop Theodore McCallister."
Tobey did as she said, turning his attention to the woman.
Her face was creased with concern. Her usual stoic, irritated look was laced with what he thought was fear. But it quickly fizzled back to normal as she continued, "I am not going to be your personal project. Anything you do must be agreed, consented to and approved by me."
"Of course!" He felt a pang of guilt, but tried to encourage her. To her, this was practically a surgery meeting, "I doubt I'll be too disruptive to your makeup. I'll probably be reorganizing and upgrading your interior- and figuring out what's causing you issues."
"Just… fix, mend and repair me."
"Don't worry, Lady Redundant Woman. I'll make that my number one priority."
With a shadow of doubt, the dirty blonde gave a stern nod. He took it as a sign of fragile trust. And that meant a whole lot.
"Alright, well, want to quickly take some notes down or whatever it is you need to do so you can… I don't know, draw blueprints or something?" Two Brains leant shuffled his wheelie chair closer to the two.
"Uh, I should probably start walking home. I don't really want to walk in the dark back home."
"Ah, it's fine," the rat man waved a dismissing hand, "I can drive you home in my van."
"Are you legally allowed to drive?"
"Yes, obviously."
"Are you actually able to drive?"
"Somewhat."
Tobey gave a look to Lady Redundant. She slowly shook her head. He turned back to Two Brains.
"I guess you'll be driving, then."