Machinations - 14. Arc 2, Chapter 4

Rainbright – no, Angelica in Rainbright’s body – was standing at the head of the meeting table. All six of them were there, though Scope in Nathan’s body was still getting seated. “We have three more people to wait for,” Angelica said.

Nathan looked around. There were two empty seats, not counting the one Angelica was standing behind, and none of the spare chairs had been set out. Who else was supposed to be there?

And why did Grapple have such big boobs? No matter where he looked, except straight up, they were always in his field of vision! It was very uncomfortable. Not only did they belong to another person, which meant he shouldn’t be looking at them too much, but they were currently attached to him. He didn’t particularly want to have boobs. Was this how trans guys felt? At least trans women didn’t have to deal with constantly seeing unwanted body parts. Though if there was a cis man who had body parts big enough to be seen like that, Nathan would be interested in seeing that. For scientific purposes, of course.

The others didn’t look too much happier with the situation. Grapple, in Raph’s body, was shifting uncomfortably. “Hey,” she whispered, leaning over to Raph. “Is this why men sit with their legs apart? Because they constantly feel their dicks?”

It was a lot easier to tell that Raph wasn’t who he was supposed to be. After all, he was in Nathan’s body. It was almost uncomfortable to look at him. “I don’t really notice it that much?” Raph shrugged. “And I guess trans guys do it, too?”

Great. He didn’t particularly want to think about the fact that part of his anatomy was missing, but now he could feel the lack in a very physical way. Was this like phantom limb pain? Whatever it was, it was very uncomfortable.

The door banged open. Scanner and Smokescreen walked in. That accounted for two of the people, and the two chairs. “Hey, guys,” Scanner said with a wave, their sleeve sliding down to reveal a yellow bracelet. “Why is Angelica sitting there?”

“I guess she didn’t tell you the situation?” Nathan asked. He was looking at Smokescreen, who glanced over at Nathan’s body, filled by Raph, and then quickly looked away.

“Nope,” Smokescreen said. “Just got a text for an emergency meeting.”

Scanner was standing still, looking around with a frown on their face. “Wait a second,” they said. “Is this a body swap?”

“What makes you think that?” Raph-- no, Grapple said.

Scanner pointed at Angelica. “First of all, she’s not where she’s supposed to be. Her body language is all wrong, too. Angelica is like this.” Scanner stood up straight and squared their shoulders. It wasn’t a bad resemblance. “But right now she’s all like…” Scanner dropped their shoulders and ducked her head. “Like Iris. Iris is more like this right now.” Shoulders up and further back. “Like Rainbright. And Rainbright isn’t here, but that’s her seat.” Scanner pointed at the head of the table, where Angelica normally sat. “Do I need to start on you three, too?”

“No, thank you,” Nathan said quickly. He knew Coral was good at picking things up from other people, but he didn’t realize they could pick things up after such a short time knowing them. He was a little worried about what they might say now. “Yeah, it’s a body swap. Those three and us three.”

“Thanks.” Scanner went to an empty seat. “Enmachina.”

Nathan tried to catch Smokescreen’s eye, but he was looking straight down at the table.

“All right, then,” Rain-- Angelica said as she came back in, carrying a bundle under her arm and wearing an Angelica t-shirt. “Hello, Scanner, Smokescreen. Now, here’s something to make life easier on us.” She unwrapped the bundle, a series of t-shirts around a projector. The projector was put down on the table and she passed out the shirts. Nathan got an Enmachina shirt, which he immediately put on over Grapple’s uniform.

“Ooh, do we get ones, too?” Scanner asked. “Or is it only people who got swapped?”

Angelica paused, but continued quickly. “Unfortunately, we don’t have merchandise for you until the next quarterly review. But when we do, you can get whatever you want. I trust the others have brought you up to speed.”

“More or less,” Smokescreen said. “We know the swap happened. Not why or how.”

“We’re still working on that ourselves. One second.” Angelica had finished passing out the shirts and was now fiddling with the projector. She hit the button on top. “There we are.”

The image of a very familiar woman wearing a pink and orange domino mask popped up on the wall. “Hello, everyone! So I’ve been looking at this thing, and let me tell ya, it’s got a ton of features--” The screen turned to face the device.

Angelica loudly cleared her throat. “We have some new members here. Maybe you should introduce yourself first?”

The device turned back to Ma’s face. “Oh, right! Sorry. I’m Nessa. I was the previous Enmachina. I’m retired now, but I still work with the Corps sometimes and I build the current one’s suits.” Also, she was his mother.

Everyone at the table looked over at Raph, then looked down at his Scope shirt over the Enmachina suit, and then looked over at Nathan’s shirt before looking at Nathan himself. It was actually kind of amusing.

“Thank you,” Angelica said. “As you were saying?”

“Right.” The camera turned to face the machine again. “So, obviously, there’s a bodyswap thing in here. It seems to activate only when three people are in range of the machine. Other than that, there’s a radio, something that disguises your voice, and a cloaking device. Nothing other than that. But there’s something that really concerns me here,” Ma added, turning it back around to face her. “So someone took a lot of time making this. Even added a bunch of decoration to it. So why is it just sitting here?”

“Apparently, that’s normal,” Angelica said. “I sent a picture of the culprit out. They appear to be Overlord, a mercenary Mad Scientist with no base. They often build something specifically for the job and then leave it behind, no traps involved. Best guess is that they like showing off what they can do.”

“Hmm.” Ma still didn’t look happy, but she nodded. “In that case, they did a pretty good job.”

“Can you swap us back?” Angelica asked.

“I don’t know,” Ma said confidently. “From what I can tell, it’s currently offline and I have no idea how to turn it back on. This isn’t my specialty, so my power isn’t working on it. I’ll have to talk to some of my contacts in the other branches of the Corps.”

“Now, you said that there was a radio and a voice disguiser,” Angelica said.

“Yeah, they were using it when we were there,” Nathan said.

“All right, then. Nessa, keep working. Everyone else, I need a report of what happened. Include any radio conversations you had. We need to sort out what we actually said and what Overlord told us.”

“Hold on,” Grapple said. “We all got bodyswapped. How do we know that Overlord didn’t decide to swap into one of us?”

Angelica looked up. “Each of you were scanned by the mind scanner, and the profiles are what we’d expect them to be. If you want to be sure, though…” Angelica put her hands on her hips. “I have a wife and two daughters. The youngest is currently obsessed with jumping spiders.”

“That’s true,” Nathan said immediately.

“It is,” Grapple agreed.

“Good. Now, go around the table. I need at least two people to back up anything you say and it can’t be something on the wiki. No public knowledge or anything in our systems.”

“Okay,” Rainbright said. “One of my professors is Mr. Henderson.”

Angelica and Iris both nodded. “Iris?” Angelica asked.

“I like soccer,” Iris said. Rainbright and Grapple both nodded.

“Good,” Angelica said. “Next?”

Scanner stood up. “My name is Scanner and I’m an alcoholic.” Smokescreen grabbed them and pulled them back into their chair. “Sorry, just lightening the mood.” They laughed awkwardly.

Angelica’s stare, if it had been non-metaphorical, would have pinned Scanner to the chair with daggers. “I see,” she said. If anything, the room was much colder now. “Now the other three?”

Nathan shrugged. “You all know that my name is Nathan and I’ve unmasked to all of you.” He glanced at Raph.

“Wait,” Rainbright said. “When did you unmask to those two?” She pointed at Scanner and Smokescreen.

“That could be R-- Scope’s answer,” Scanner said, glancing over at him.

Raph nodded. “Nathan’s known their civilian identities for a few years now. Met Smokescreen at a Chinese restaurant, I think?”

Nathan nodded. “Cantonese, specifically.”

“Yep,” Smokescreen said.

“And Grapple?” Angelica looked over at her.

“Well…” Grapple shrugged. “I like blackberries more than strawberries.”

“You monster,” Nathan said.

“All right, then,” Angelica said. “Is everyone satisfied that they are who they say they are?” Nobody said anything. “Good. Now let’s get back to the report. Rainbright, Iris, start us off and I want details on all radio conversations.”

Rainbright nodded. “All right. We were called in to investigate the warehouse. You told us that Enmachina didn’t want to risk exposure to the tech, so we would head in first and he would cover us.”

“Wait,” Nathan said, sitting up straighter. Angelica gestured for him to proceed. “Angelica told me not to go in.”

“When was that?” Angelica asked.

“Right after the report came in.”

“That wasn’t me,” Angelica said. “A few minutes later, I got a call saying that you didn’t want to go in and that you’d cover it.” Angelica took a deep breath. “All right. So Overlord arranged things so that you’d be waiting outside and everyone else went in first.”

“Oh, wait,” Nathan said. “Right before they went in, Rainbright and I had a conversation saying that Angelica told them not to let me in.”

“No,” Rainbright said. “That was after we went in for us and you said you wanted to stay out.”

“All right,” Angelica said. “That was also fake. I suppose Overlord was really determined to keep you out.”

“Well,” Grapple said, “he and I are senior members. Only the three of us have the authority to call in other members.”

“Right,” Angelica said. “You patrol at night, Enmachina patrols in the afternoon, and I don’t patrol. By having you there, they ensure that someone can call others in.”

“But…” Smokescreen said. When everyone else looked at him, he continued. “Doesn’t that assume that they know the chain of command here?”

“Yeah,” Enmachina said. “The promotion is pretty recent.”

“Let’s move on, then,” Angelica said. “Rainbright, you entered the warehouse. What then?”

“We didn’t see any sign of them. It was just an empty warehouse. We reported that to you and you told us to keep searching. I guess that wasn’t real.”

“No,” Angelica said. “Enmachina called me and he hadn’t heard anything either. Not even a click. He asked me if I wanted him to go in. I asked if he felt safe doing that, and he said it should be a last resort.”

“Not real,” Nathan said. “I did tell you I didn’t even hear a click.”

“Hmm,” Angelica said. “That means they were monitoring our communications and editing things. There was a pause in the conversation. You told me you thought you saw something, but it turned out to be nothing.”

“No gap for me,” Nathan said.

“All right. So I went in. We met up near the middle of the room and then…” Angelica shrugged. “We were out like a light.”

“Our turn, then,” Grapple said. “Enmachina called us in, saying that you three disappeared. I’m guessing that was real?” She looked over at Nathan. He nodded. “And then we went in. That’s where the footage starts.”

“Let’s watch that for a moment. Nessa, you don’t mind if we cut you off?”

Ma gave them a distracted wave. She disappeared from the wall and it was replaced by footage from Nathan’s camera. He watched it along with the others to see if there was something he missed. Everything looked pretty much as he remembered, and nobody pointed anything else out. At least, not until the point where they ended up walking into Overlord’s trap. Angelica paused it there.

“Yes, we know,” Grapple said. “That was stupid of us.”

“You did reasonably well up to there,” Angelica said. “But just because someone doesn’t trigger a trap doesn’t mean there isn’t a trap. But here’s the interesting part.”

The video continued and the three of them got knocked out. Overlord swung their legs once and then hopped off the machine, coming up to the camera and peering in. When they spoke, it wasn’t into a microphone. Their voice sounded quite chipper. “So, like I said, nothing personal. This is just business. But I like you, so I think I’ll give you a little tidbit. An organization hired me. But the whole thing isn’t coming here. Not yet, anyway. Just one person. This one’s gonna be a doozy for the six of you.” They tilted their head. “Or is it eight now? But I suppose it doesn’t matter. I was only hired for six. Have fun!” They gave a tiny finger wave and walked off to the side.

There was silence for a moment. “Well,” Grapple said, “I think that confirms that Overlord is part of the Corps.”

“Not necessarily,” Angelica said. “It’s possible they could simply be hacked into our systems. Either way, we have a massive security breach.”

“I’m more interested in this organization they talked about,” Nathan said. “So someone’s showing up soon?”

“Seems that way,” Angelica said. “And that’s why I called the two of you in.” She looked over at Scanner and Smokescreen. “As of right now, you two are the only ones cleared for duty.”

“What?” Smokescreen asked. “Why?”

Angelica held up a fist. Another fist, this one red, flickered into existence beside hers. “Our powers didn’t come with us. Corps policy forbids us from going out into the field without a firm grasp on our powers. You two are cleared for using your powers, but the rest of us currently aren’t.”

“What about patrols?” Smokescreen asked. “We’re not supposed to do patrols. And unlike the rest of you, we have pretty much no mobility.”

“No,” Angelica said. “However, we sometimes do days, even a few in a row, without patrols. That way, if something like this happens, then it takes a while for the villains to notice. I think we can pull off a whole week without patrols, which should give us time to get everyone trained.”

“Hold on,” Smokescreen said. “If this villain is coming, then they’ll want to be here before you guys are done, and before any replacements are on board, so they’ll probably attack in the next week. Meaning the two of us need to deal with them.”

Angelica nodded. “I know what I’m asking. I’ll send out some feelers and see if we can get you some backup. We don’t know how dangerous this unknown person could be.”

“Probably not very,” Scanner said. “I mean, why would they want to scramble everyone up if they think they’re strong enough to take everyone on?”

“That… is actually a good point,” Grapple said. “Why tilt the odds so much if you’re confident you’ll win?”

“There’s every reason not to have a fair fight, even if you’re confident you’ll win,” Smokescreen said. “There’s always a chance of an underdog victory. Six to one isn’t good odds unless you’re really, really powerful.”

Angelica shook her head. “All we know for sure that whoever hired Overlord isn’t confident that they’ll win against us. That or they want us distracted.”

“If it’s a distraction,” Scanner said slowly, “then how do we know the message is genuine? They could’ve paid Overlord to give us a red herring.”

“Also a possibility,” Nathan said. “Either way, I guess we’ll find out soon. Or, if we get our bodies back soon, maybe they just won’t arrive. Personally, I think we should aim for that.”

“Right. Any progress on that, Nessa?” Angelica asked, switching the projector back.

The camera was pointed up at the warehouse ceiling, though it quickly returned to Ma’s face. “I’ve been here half an hour,” Ma said with a frown. “What do you think I can do in that time? My specialty is power armor, not…” She waved at the machine. “Whatever this thing counts as. Medical equipment, maybe?”

“Pretty sure it’s not medical equipment,” Raph said.

“Well, it’s not power armor, that’s for sure,” Ma said. “Like I said, I’ll talk to some of my contacts and see if they can figure out how to turn it back on and reverse it.”

“What if they can’t?” Iris asked quietly.

“Then we might have to play a bit of musical chairs,” Ma said, “but as long as we can turn it on and get it working, we should be able to get you back. Worst comes to worst, we’ll see about building a whole new machine.”

Angelica nodded. “Thank you, Nessa. We’ll stop disturbing you now.”

“Not a problem,” Ma said. “Good luck.” The screen went blank.

Angelica shut off the projector and faced all of them. “Time for the unpleasant part of the discussion.” If the rest of that qualified as pleasant, then Nathan wasn’t sure he wanted to know what was coming. “We need to discuss boundaries and other practical issues while we’re in each other’s bodies.” Ah, that was definitely worse.

“Do we really have to discuss this?” Rainbright asked.

“Keep in mind that I’m in your body,” Angelica said. “Aren’t there things you’d prefer I don’t do while I’m here?”

Rainbright shifted uncomfortably. “Maybe?”

“That’s what I thought. Now, we have some guidelines about what to do in this situation, but I think we need to have a group discussion so that we don’t have any misconceptions.” Angelica looked each person in the eye. “First of all, your body belongs to you. You have absolute say over what happens to it. Are we all agreed on that?” There was a general murmur of agreement. “This is especially the case for permanent modifications, like tattoos, piercings, and so on. Agreed?” Another murmur of agreement. “Touching someone’s body without consent is assault and battery. Touching someone’s body in a sexual manner without consent is sexual assault. Agreed?” More agreement. “You are currently in a body that does not belong to you. You are a guest. When you are a guest in someone’s house, you don’t take a sledgehammer to the walls.”

“Unless you have the owner’s consent,” Nathan said.

“Exactly. Anything that you do to the body you’re visiting will be considered the same as doing it to the person who owns it. It is illegal to hold someone down and give them a piercing. It is illegal to touch someone sexually without their consent. It’s illegal to force someone into sex with another. It’s illegal to take nude or sexual images of someone without their consent. If you do any of that to the body you’re in, then at the very least you will lose your job. Criminal charges may be filed. Are there any questions about that?”

Scanner raised a hand. When Angelica nodded, they spoke up. “So, my body belongs to me even when I’m not in it. I got that. But let’s say that E-- Smokescreen and I swapped bodies. He’s in my body. So, I’m allowed to touch my own body any way I want. Does that mean that it’s okay if I do so while he’s in my body?”

Angelica sighed. “First of all, you would be touching your own body with Smokescreen’s body. Forcing someone else to touch you sexually is still sexual assault, so it would be sexual assault on his body. Any sexual activity while visiting someone else’s body will count as assault. Second…” she said, looking very reluctant, “you have a point. The body belongs to you, yes, but there is still another person in there who needs to be treated with respect. Provided, of course, that they are respecting your body. Any other questions?”

“What about kissing?” Raph asked.

Angelica thought about it for a moment. “That sounds like a more personal boundary. Put your hand up if kissing on the cheek is okay.” All hands went up, except for Raph’s. “Scope?”

Raph shrugged. “If Grapple touches anyone in any way in my body, then that will activate my powers, so I don’t think it matters much.”

“I don’t plan on kissing anyone anyway,” Grapple said.

Angelica looked faintly annoyed at that. Or maybe it was just Rainbright’s face. “Hands down. Put your hand back up if a brief peck on the lips is okay.” Nathan raised his hand again. Grapple did too, thankfully. It was going to be weird kissing his own body, though. On the other side of the table, Iris had her hand down while Rainbright and Angelica had theirs up. “Iris?” Angelica asked.

“Not okay. Sorry.”

“That’s okay,” Rainbright said.

“All right, then,” Angelica said. “A longer kiss on the lips?”

This time, Rainbright was the only one with her hand up. “I don’t really think that’s sexual,” Rainbright said.

“Either way, I don’t foresee any makeout sessions in my immediate future.” Angelica didn’t sound that happy about it. “All right, then. Only brief kisses on the cheek or mouth.”

Nathan raised his hand. Angelica nodded and he sat up straighter. “Is it possible to put on a bra without touching… you know…?” He gestured.

“Not really,” Grapple said, tapping a pen on the table. “At least not for me. I guess it’s possible, but I usually end up with some contact.”

“Ah,” Nathan said. “So what should I do about that? I don’t want to touch them. At all.” Grapple looked annoyed. “I mean, they’re very nice as far as breasts go, but, you know… breasts just… don’t go all that far with me. And I don’t feel like they belong and I…” Why was this train of thought still going? “I’ll shut up now.”

“That is a very good question,” Angelica said. “Can we all agree that any touching done in the name of getting dressed is non-sexual?”

“I, um,” Iris took a deep breath. “I’m not sure I’m comfortable with that. I mean, I don’t think it’s necessarily sexual, but…”

“Okay,” Angelica said. “Is there anything that would make you more comfortable?”

Iris sat back and thought for a moment. “…No,” she finally said. “I mean, it’s not like I can watch her getting dressed and undressed.”

Scanner let out a short laugh. “That’ll definitely make things sexual,” they said.

“Yeah,” Rainbright said. “I’m not sure I’d be comfortable with that.”

“Neither would I,” Iris said.

Angelica nodded. “I understand that this is a very uncomfortable situation, but health is also a concern. Any more questions.”

Rainbright raised her hand. “What about, um, hygiene issues?”

“That is the next topic. Any other questions on consent or clothing-related issues?” Nobody said anything. “All right, then. Now, your body does belong to you, but there is some unavoidable maintenance to do, and that can involve some personal touching. Similar to the clothing issue, can we agree that this is non-sexual?”

“Like periods?” Rainbright asked.

“Yes, though I would recommend the use of pads rather than anything internal,” Angelica said. “Also showering and waste management.”

Grapple cleared her throat and raised her hand. “I’m probably the only one with this problem, but, well… aiming?”

“You can sit down,” Raph said. “No aiming required.”

Lucky her. That was another thing Nathan would have to deal with. He wasn’t looking forward to it. “Doesn’t the paper go pretty personal?” he asked.

“If it’s a problem, I can wipe you,” Grapple said. Her voice was a bit condescending. It was especially jarring coming from Raph’s body.

“Uh, no. That’s worse. That is every single kind of worse.” Nathan huffed. “I can learn to manage your weird parts.” Now half the room was glaring at him. “Okay, sorry. I am just really not happy with my body suddenly having the wrong shape.”

“Can’t imagine what that’s like,” Angelica said dryly. “Now, is everyone all right with, or at least resigned to, the idea of someone else using the restroom or showering in their body?”

Nobody said anything, though Angelica seemed like she was waiting. “I’m fine with it,” Nathan said. Though, of course, the person currently in his body was his boyfriend and also the one person who knew his body as well as he did. Maybe even more, come to think of it. He’d gotten off pretty easily, aside from the fact that he was stuck in a woman’s body. Better him than Raph, though. Raph really didn’t take well to major changes. The less he had to deal with, the better.

“I’m resigned to it,” Grapple said.

“Same,” Iris and Rainbright both said at the same time.

“I think it’ll be more uncomfortable for her than me,” Raph said.

“Next topic, then. Identity.” Angelica pulled out a piece of paper. “Tomorrow, we’ll issue temporary IDs that have your real name on them, but the picture will show the body you’re visiting. This should allow you to drive and make purchases under your own credit cards. Accessing someone else’s card will be considered fraud. Any questions about that?” Silence. “Next up, allergies and other dietary restrictions. Iris is allergic to peanut butter, so Rainbright, you will need to avoid that.”

Rainbright made a noise of protest. “But I love it!”

“Do you also love staying alive?” Angelica asked. “In any case, she’s the only one I’m aware of with allergies. If you have allergies, please inform your guest so that they don’t make a fatal mistake. If your host informs you that they have restrictions, please abide by those. Not only out of politeness, but also because sometimes bodies have trouble handling new foods. Understood?”

Raph glanced over at Nathan. “Do you want me to be kosher while I’m here?”

Nathan shrugged. “It’d be nice if you would.” Judaism forbade the appearance of breaking rules even if they weren’t actually breaking them. Then again, Raph wasn’t Jewish, so he wasn’t bound by the same laws. Maybe Nathan would have to ask his rabbi about that. It wouldn’t be the weirdest question a rabbi had ever fielded.

“Does anyone else have any dietary restrictions for their guests?” Angelica asked. No response. “Last thing, then,” Angelica said. “For those of you with work or school, we’ve called you out as sick for the time being. And I think that’s it. Are there any other questions about any topic at all?” More silence. Angelica gathered up her papers and tapped them on the table to straighten them. “Then I won’t keep you for much longer. Dismissed. If you think of something later, feel free to email me.”

Nathan looked over at Raph, who was picking himself up, and at Smokescreen, who was getting up along with Scanner. He hurried over to Smokescreen. “Hey,” he said. “It’s me.”

Smokescreen glanced down at the shirt. “I see that.”

“Can we talk? Not necessarily now, but soon. I want to talk soon.”

Smokescreen hesitated, and then nodded. “Soon. Maybe after this gets resolved.”

“All right. I can live with that,” Nathan said.

“Talk to you soon,” Smokescreen said with a nod and walked away.

Something was odd, though. He didn’t feel as attracted to Smokescreen as he normally did. Was this a result of the bodyswap? Grapple was exclusively attracted to women. He still loved Raph, though. Was he losing interest in Eric? That was something he’d have to worry about later, though.

First, he needed to deal with these stupid tits.