MAU: Infinite Crisis, part 5

Mike walked into the lab where the two unusual mechanincal suits were sent. His hastily assembled team had been using various devices to scan the suits. From measuring dimensions to determining metal alloys used in their construction, nothing was missed. Still gingerly touching his throbbing nose, Mike walked over to his colleage, Tom, who was looking at the Linna hardsuit.

"I think this could be a power source," Tom said as he pulled the battery from its housing. "What the hell happened to you?" he asked seeing the sickly colour of Mikes nose.

"Don't ask," growled Mike, "So, what do we have?" he asked as he took the battery Tom offered to look at.

"A battery. Designed in a way I've never seen before," he said thumbing his nose, "I'll need to check the charge but considering the weight of the thing for its size, it's either very powerful or needlessly complex and... Well. An oversized triple-a battery," he said as Mike handed it back to him.

"Well if it turns out it is better than what's out there, then we'll have to check the patents," Mike said to which Tom gave a bemused grunt as he carried the battery to a table with the equipment he'd need.

"Hey Mike, get over here. I got something you might want to see," called another back at the hardsuits. Mike and Tom gave each other an eye as they walked over to him.

"Yes?" asked Mike.

"I've got a radio frequency here. It's cycling between the extreme high and low bands."

Mike grabbed the read-out display, "Are you saying that these things are communicating with each other?"

"Actually no. I think that something else nearby is "talking" to these two exo-suit things"

Mike raised an eyebrow, "Exo-suits? Come on, I'm not calling them that," Mike complained as he handed the display back.

Tom chuckled, "Well what would you call them?"

Mike scratched his head as he thought, "Alright fine, I'll think of something better later."

Tom and the other guy both smirked at Mike's response as they got back to work.

Just then a PA announcement came on, "Mike Givings, call 315. Givings, call 315."

Mike's head jerked up at hearing Nicolette's voice calling for him but instantly grumbled as he recognised the line as Frank's lab number. Still wishing she'd thaw out one day soon he walked over to a desk and picked up the phone before dialing the extension number.

It rang once before it picked up, "Hello Givings?" It was Nicolette.

"What can I help you with Nicolette? I'm kinda busy with something over here."

"Can you come to Franks' lab please? He found something unique in the blood sample I sent him earlier.."

"Look, I'm sure you want to show off whatever it is you two found but that medical stuff is over my head," Mike said with sarcastic disinterest.

"Just get over here Givings," she told him with annoyance before hanging up by slamming the receiver down causing Mike to pull his away from his ear.

"Cold bitch as always," Mike grumbled as he put the phone back on the desk.

As he walked to the door Tom called after him, "The doctor got you running for her again?"

"Shut it Tom," Mike growled as he stepped through the door.

"Ah, you know you like it when she does that," he goaded.

"I wouldn't mind it if she actually used my first name when talking to me. It pisses me off sometimes to know that I'm the only one she does that to."

"At least the boss uses your first name," Tom said with a laugh as Mike shut the door behind him. A scowl was on his face.

"He only does that so he doesn't have to show respect by saying "Mr." first," Mike thought to himself as he trudged the halls to Franks lab.

Several minutes of walking through the ship Mike finally arrive at Franks lab. On entering he could see Nicolette and Frank taking turns looking through a microscope talking about how "fascinating" whatever it was they were looking at. As Frank looked over and noticed Mike he motioned him to take a look.

"So what am I looking at," Mike asked.

"Just look Givings," Nicolette told him flatly.

Mike rolled his eyes skeptically as he peered into the microscope. What he saw was what he assumed to be blood cells surrounding a rectangular object. Mike then leaned back, "Okay, please tell me what I'm looking at." he said completely lost.

"It's the blood sample I had taken from the girl," Nicolette said with a small trace of excitement in her voice.

"And that means?..."

"If you paid attention you would have seen the blood cells consuming the metal object we put in with it," she said as if was pointing out the extremely obvious.

Mike looked back into the microscope and stared at the sample. In the span of thirty seconds he watched in astonishment as the blood sample seemed to be eating the metal fragment. After registering what he saw he jumped back.

"Freaky isn't it?" said Frank.

"...Just what is that stuff feeding on?" Mike asked a little freaked out himself.

"It used to be a syringe needle," Nicolette said, "Its second needle actually. It consumes metallic compounds at a phenomenal rate."

"But what is that?!" Mike asked pointing at the slide in the microscope.

"I would also like to know that," Mr. Tonoan asked finally announcing his presence in the lab.

Everyone stiffened and turned to their boss. He walked to the table and looked in the microscope as Mike got out of the way.

"So, what is this and what does it have to do with the girl Peter's team was told to abduct?" Mr. Tonoan asked still looking through the microscope watching the "blood" consume the rest of the needle.

"How did?..." Mike started to ask. He hadn't even finished writing his report concerning the girl and the technology that was brought back.

"I make it a point to stay informed on things that would affect my company. Like child abduction for instance," he said, his voice laced with underlined threats.

"They're nanites, sir," Frank said.

"That's impossible," Mike stated with disbelief.

"And why is that Mike?" Mr. Tonoan "asked" as he straightened up and gave him an ominous look.

"Um, nanites, while in theory is possible. No one has been able to do any practical work because of the complexity on the microscopic level. It's still out of anyone's capability to construct one let alone program one with specific instructions to do anything useful," Mike explained.

"I trust you are making a point Mike?"

"What he means sir, is that nanites can do almost anything from medical treatments to pretty much anything we could imagine. The holy grail of the modern world," Nicolette said excitedly.

Mr. Tonoan looked around at Mike, Frank, and Nicolette to gauge their beliefs, "And these nanites were extracted from the girl?"

"The sample Nicolette sent over doesn't have any blood in it. Each cell is actually made up of three machine-style nanites surrounded by an organic-type nanite," Frank said, "So we have in our possession both versions of nanites."

"And the girl Nelly head-butted with the guards' weapon?" Mr. Tonoans' tone of voice suggested he wasn't really concerned for the girls well-being but the potential loss of a surprisingly marketable asset.

"She's fine but she's not human," Nicolette said, "Aside from looking like a girl she's not human. And after what Frank has shown us, and the tests I was able to perform on my own, I am forced to believe that her entire body is like the sample."

"So you are saying that the girl is not human?"

"Yes sir."

"...Very well," Mr. Tonoan said as he turned to Mike, "Mike, move all our projects off the ship. I want all teams focused on the technology and equipment your teams have brought back."

"Um, Mr. Tonoan. Most of the projects aren't ready to move and most of the personnel won't be qualified to work on what we've found out about this girl so far.."

"It," Stated Mr. Tonoan.

"Sir?"

"If it is not human as the doctor has just told me then it will not be treated as such understand?"

"... Yes sir."

"And as for the projects on hand, they can be completed at the shore offices," Mr. Tonoan stated bluntly putting an end to Mikes protests. He then turned around and left.

Suddenly the phone rang. Since it was Franks lab, he answered before handing it off to Mike.

"Hello?"

"Hey Mike, it's Tom," he said in a chipper voice. "I was looking over the second suit, the one that doesn't have a battery. Anyways, I was looking through the inside of it and noticed that the connection port in the chest piece is shaped slightly different than the other one. It could be a plug for a power source. If we can get the power source, we can hook it up and see how the thing works all powered up."

"But we don't even..." Mike trailed off as he remembered talking with Nicolette about the unusual connectors on the girl earlier, "Tom, grab an electrical gauge tester to Nicolette's office. Make sure it's the heaviest tester we have. I'll meet you there," he said before hanging up. He then turned to Nicolette, "I think I found the reason for those things on the girl."

"Really, you think so Givings?" she asked sceptically.

"Yeah I have Tom meeting me there with some equipment to test my theory."

"I'll come to. Even if she isn't human she is still my patient. Besides, I have to make sure you don't mess up my office again," she said defensively.

"Fine with me," Mike said as Nicolette walked ahead of him. He stayed a few steps behind to watch her ass sway through her lab coat. "If only she weren't so cold," Mike thought to himself again.

0000000

It had been well over an hour before John and everyone else were able to calm Major down from her nervous breakdown and panic attack. Major was now resting in her room with John watching over her. Major was in her bed with her covers pulled over her head in deep thought. After several minutes she pulled the covers down to see John sitting at the foot of her bed reading a book. "I'm sorry," she whimpered.

John looked over with a puzzled look on his face, "What for?" ha asked as he put his book down.

"For freaking out. For making you all worry. I should be stronger than this," she said sullenly.

John sat there for a moment looking at her before letting out a deep sigh, "You're not a burden to us, especially to me. And none of us are expecting you to be superwoman"

Major let out a short laugh before sitting up, "I'm sure there are a few out there we haven't seen yet."

John laughed himself, "Yeah, but I'm kinda thankful we haven't had to run into any yet."

Major hugged her knees as a sad look crept on her face again, "It's just that ever since Henry stole my memories, I've been trying to figure out who I am. I don't even know if I was a girl before I used that machine. For all I know, I was some shut-in pale fat man that had a sick fetish for robot girls with guns. I hate not knowing who I was but I'm so afraid that I might be some horrible person."

John pursed his lips, "Here's what I know. Who ever was that tachicoma, that person felt you were worth it to sacrifice themself to save you. And even if you have lost all your memories of who you were, I think that the way you've acted so far shows that you are a good person. And if you weren't, then I don't think I would have fallen in love with you."

Tears crept from Major's eyes as she hide her face in her knees trying to hide them, "Sometimes when I wake up in the morning, for the briefest second of clarity, it feels like I know exactly who I am. I could remember my childhood and even my real name. and then just like that, it all vanishes. Do you know what that's like? To be so close to knowing who you really are just to have it all taken away! It scares me," she said hugging her knees tighter.

John put his hand on her knee and gave it a reassuring squeeze and nodded. "I'm not going to insult you by saying that I understand. All I'm saying is that you're not alone in this. Henry's hurt all of us," John said as he felt his chest where it was pierced years ago. He then gave her knee a pat, "Come on, I'm sure Jeffrey and Andria are wanting to talk to you too. Not to mention we're going to have to come up with a plan to find Henry before he does anything to Noel."

Major nodded and grabbed John's offered hand as he pulled her up. As they left her room she silently promised herself that she'd stop Henry once and for all.

00000000

Three days had passed at the floating headquarters of Tonoan Industrials. Mike, now the head of researching the hardsuits, had his teams box up and clear out all the prototype tech and various other chemicals to their shore office/factory building they were docked to. The rear elevator on the ship provided the easy access necessary to move all the equipment from the labs that were located where the hanger would have been if the ship were an actual aircraft carrier.

As Mike walked into the now empty lab he took a moment to marvel at how empty the normally crowded area was. Most of those who were working on their projects were sent off with them since they had no expertise with nanites in the "girl" and none relevant to the advanced technology in the two hardsuits. The results were only two and a have teams of the original standard of twenty which barely had qualifications to work on the suits let alone the "girl".

Just then Mr. Tonoan came up beside him, "What's the status of our new project?"

Mike swallowed, "We've got all the other projects off the ship. Unfortunately most of the staff went with them. With the people we do still have it'll take longer to work on these things than we wanted to."

Mr. Tonoan shifted his stance, to most would be a sign he was tired but Mike knew better, "Anything else?"

"Tom and I found that the girl.."

"The subject," Mr. Tonoan corrected.

"..The subject is the power source that our satellite detected. Tom later found that "the subject" is emitting extreme high and low end radio frequencies. After we cleared out the lab here, we used a mesh we had that's able to block radio waves and made sort of cage that you see he-it in now," Mike said as he pointed to the mesh box in front of them, he hoped Mr. Tonoan hadn't caught his slip up about the girl.

"Any signs that someone responded?" Mr. Tonoan asked seemingly oblivious, but Mike knew better.

"No sir. The signals were too weak. Tom and I have a theory that "it" was trying to send information to the exo-suits to relay somewhere else but we haven't detected any signals from them. So we should be in the clear."

Mr. Tonoan nodded, "Check the patents. If no one has a claim on this technology then I want you to subtly add our own."

"Yes sir."

"Good." And with that Mr. Tonoan left.

When Mr. Tonoan was gone Mike looked at the girl who was being connected to power cables while another team was busy erecting a mesh cage that would block all radio signals from the girl. "Yeah, real subtle."

00000

It was a day later when Noel finally awoken with a start. Even though her head was pounding she shook it to clear the lingering cobwebs, "This is becoming a bad joke," she thought as she tried to bring her hand up, she suddenly realised that her movements were restricted. Looking around herself she saw that she was now suspended by a harness, thick cables were attached to all the connectors on her body in such a way as if she were crucified. Noel began to hyperventilate as she struggled to get free. Looking around she saw that she was suspended inside some kind of mesh cage. Some people were walking around outside the cage, a woman had just entered the cage walking towards her. A second later Noel realised it was the same woman who tried giving her a shot when she was last awake.

As Nicolette walked up, she pulled a syringe out of a small case she was carrying with her. She tried once again to pull up the sleeve of the plug suit Noel had been wearing since she arrived. The material remained unyielding so Nicolette simply pushed the needle through it to draw another sample.

"What are you doing?" Noel asked weakly with a tinge of fear.

Nicolette, startled that the girl before her was suddenly awake, looked up before resuming her work, "I am taking a sample of your "blood". Whoever made you has done a very thorough job making you look human. He must have some very wealthy backers to be able to produce you while everyone else is still in the theoretical stages."

"What are you talking about?" Noel demanded as she tried pulling against the cables attached to her arms.

Nicolette pulled out a small audio recorder from her coat pocket and began to speak into it, "It seems that whoever created the subject has designed the A.I. to be self-aware and assume human-like... consciousness of self. From what interaction I have so far with the subject. I believe that it thinks that it is actually human. Unfortunately, it seems the subject has no knowledge of its creator or creators." she said with a disappointed sigh before sliding the recorder back into her pocket and left the cage.

Noel struggled against the unyielding cables again, "What are you talking about?! Of course I'm hu-" Noel stopped as she realized what she did. When she used the weird machine to transform herself the last time, she remembered that she specifically thought the phrase "Claudia-class boomer". Boomers were machines and she willingly turned herself into one. On some sub-conscious level, Noel began to think of himself as a male again. An act of defiance that reasoned that before he turned himself into this. He was human, a human male and no one was going to tell him otherwise. With that determination firmly in his mind, Noel began to concentrate on turning back to his human self to show everyone around him that they were wrong about him.

As Noel concentrated, he felt the mental switch begin to flip over before a stabbing pain ran through his chest causing him to stiffen and cry out in pain. But this time he didn't fall unconscious. Instead the searing pain only spurred him on to try harder. He was sick of the last few days he could remember. He was chased, shot at and nearly killed by some lunatic. and when he got home he was kidnaped and taken god knows where people are holding him against his will and telling him that he's not human and are now restraining him up to some nightmarish way because of it. Through pained grunts he continued to try.

This hadn't gone unnoticed by Nicolette as she stopped just outside the cage, nor Mike who'd been looking over the readouts from the cables attached to Noel. "What's happening?" Nicolette demanded as she approached Mike.

Mike looked over several screens showing data coming from the cables they attached to Noel, "I don't know! I was still calibrating the monitors," he looked over more data, "Her power output's spiking at higher yields." He paused to type in several commands.

Noel was still trying to turn back despite the pain when suddenly he felt a searing pain start to creep in from his connectors. The pain from her connectors started moving inwards. Straining against his restraints and cables attached to him his body was now fully awash in pain as he stopped trying to turn himself back to grant himself some reprieve from the pain at least in his chest so he could deal with the pain from his connectors.

Mike sighed in relief as he typed in a few more commands and stood back and rubbed his sleeve over his forehead.

Nicolette was standing by Mike at this time looking at the screens but was unable to make sense of the data. "What happened?" she asked again.

Mike took another breath as he turned to her, "It's power levels were spiking at increasingly higher levels. If it didn't stop, I think it would have overloaded and blown us up," he said grimly.

The realisation of this swept over Nicolette's face, "Then how were you able to stop it?"

Mike looked down and let out a low chuckle, "I made a biiiig gamble that I'm really happy paid off. Otherwise..." he let the sentence hang.

Nicolette was becoming very annoyed with Mike, "What did you do Mike?"

Mike looked up at her in the eye, "I plugged her into our power grid. With the way she's... It's been programed, I thought that sending an electric current back would be incentive for it to stop since whatever it was trying to do was causing her pain."

Nicolette stared at him a full minute before letting out a breath that sounded like a scoff and turned around to gather her sample and walked away to the lab to do experiments with her new sample.

Mike stared at her lovely swinging ass as she walked away. Once she was out of sight he turned back to the multiple screens in front of him. "If it did go off, we wouldn't have felt it," he mumbled as he took another drink from his coffee.

0000000

A few days later in the lab, Mike and his team had rigged up a power cable from Noel to the hardsuit with the Canada flag paintjob on it. The Exo-suit-01 as it was now called was in a separate lab on the ship. Mike, Tom, and a few others were going over the suit connecting the power cable to the connector in the chest piece. Peter and Nelly were off to the side arguing.

"Look Nell, let someone else do this. Besides, It's not even in our job description," Peter said trying to convince Nelly as she was adjusting the leotard she was wearing.

"What's the matter Pete? Pissed that you don't have the right figure to do it yourself?" Nelly taunted playfully as she began some stretches as she turned to Mike, "So Mikey-boy, You wanna explain to me why I'm wearing this get-up again? I kinda tuned you out and figured you wanted to jerk off to me when ya handed me the leotard." She then clasped her hands together, keeping her arms straight down which forced her breast to squish together. Her head was tilted like a little girl's as she looked up at him and began speaking in a mock little girl voice, "I put it on because you're just so pathetic, how could I say no?" She then bent over as she began to laugh hard.

Mike let out an annoyed sigh as he finished connecting and checking the power cable, "You're wearing the leotard because even though you're the closest person here to the girls size it's still going to be a tight squeeze. We'd use the green exo-suit but the battery that we found with it is practically dead and we don't have a way of recharging it right now. So if you want to be more uncomfortable than by all means, put your uniform and gear back on."

Nelly gave Mike a pout that was clearly meant to spur him on, "Awww, you know I only like to help. It's not every day you can get your jollies of to a real woman that's not on a computer screen."

Mike just rubbed his temples willing the headache that Nelly was giving him away. He then pointed at the hardsuit, "Just shut up and get in the damn exo-suit," he said in a weary voice.

Nelly smirked as she passed Mike as he joined Tom at some computers nearby.

"Now Nell," Tom said from the computer, "Once you get in, we'll turn the power on and the exo-suit should activate and seal you up. For now, we just want you to walk around and get a feel for the suit. We'll have you doing some strength test another day."

Nelly replied with a curt, "Okay Tom," before sliding a foot in the right leg of the hardsuit.

Mike gave Tom a WTF look to which Tom just shrugged.

"Shit, this fuckers cold!" Nelly exclaimed as she slid her other foot in the left leg.

"Don't worry about it. It'll warm up," Tom said, "Slide your arms in and once you're ready we'll flip the power on."

Nelly nodded and leaned forward. After her arms were in place, she waited for the inner lining to warm up before telling Tom and Mike she was ready. Mike turned on the power and the suit came to life. The thigh's swung up connecting the front and back sections of the hip piece before the front and back half of the torso snapped into place causing Nelly to let out an "Oof."

"Everything ok Nell?" Tom asked.

"Yeah, it's just a little tight in the chest. It's a little hard to breath," She said. Discomfort obvious on her face.

"We'll get you on the other exo-suit once we find a way to recharge the battery," Mike said.

"And here I thought you were into the whole bondage kink," Nelly teased leaving Mike to grumble under his breath.

Peter, who was standing well of to the side this whole time watching his team member, "How're you holding up Nell?"

Nelly rolled her shoulders, "Aside from it being hard to breath I'm doing ok. The suits warmed up finally so it's not freezing anymore. The suit response is sluggish though."

"It's probably because the exo-suits not getting enough power it normally gets when the girl is in it so we'll just have to deal till we get the other one working," Tom said. "For now, try walking around a bit."

Nelly nodded and began to walk around over to Peter, the actuators sounding each time she took a step. "Damn this thing's slow! It feels like I'm walking under water," Nelly said after a series of slow deliberate steps. Suddenly Nelly stiffened, a worried look was on her face.

"What's wrong Nell?" Peter asked with concern.

Nelly shifted and rolled her shoulders again, "Something in the suit's poking me all over."

"It's probably just the connectors in the suit," Mike said, "We think they act like nerve sensors to translate the persons body movements to the exo-suit. On the next test we'll try cutting holes in your leotard to see if that'll reduce the sluggish movement. Otherwise we'll try increasing power and see if that changes anything."

Nelly was about to fire off another insult when she doubled over backwards falling on her back screaming in pain.

Peter ran over to her to try to help, "Nell, what's wrong?" he shouted as he tried to keep her still.

"Something's digging into me, get this thing OFF!" she screamed while Peter shouted at Mike and Tom to shut the power off when Nelly, in a flailing frenzy effortlessly batted Peter off where he hit the wall several feet behind him where he slumped to the floor.

A second later Mike cut the power that caused the hardsuit to open a moment later. Tom ran to Nelly who wasn't moving and pulled her out. After getting her arms and legs out, he noticed bloody splotches at different points on Nelly's body and shouted at Mike to call Nicolette down here now.

As Mike called for Nicolette over the ships emergency PA system Tom asked Nelly if she was okay.

Nelly looked up at Tom with gritted teeth, "I can't move," she cried.