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LOVE & ROBOTS by BobH (c) 2009 (Note: A few months ago long-time Marvel Comics character Hank Pym took on the superhero identity of his dead ex-wife, the Wasp. No, he didn't change his gender as well, but an image released at a recent comic convention that looked an awful lot like a female version of him had me speculating that this was Marvel's next step with the character. As it happens I was mistaken and, despite looking nothing like her, this turned out to be a drawing of the dead ex-wife. However, I had already done a fair bit of speculating on what they were going to do with this before I realized my mistake, speculation that it seemed a real shame to waste, hence my story WASPS. This story is a standalone sequel to WASPS and can be read without having read that one first. It does however contain spoilers for WASPS. Characters used herein are all property of Marvel Comics) **************************************** - Prologue - Returning to her dressing room in Manhattan's Flamenco Gentlemen's Club after her latest performance, Jo Carter seated herself in front of the mirror and smiled. She was the star of the club's erotic burlesque, an object of desire for all those businessmen and trust fund rich kids who sat at their tables and cheered her on. She knew the thoughts that were going through their heads at the sight of the beautiful, blonde twentysomething performing for them, and she liked it. She also liked imagining the look on their faces if they ever found out what she really was. That would be something to behold. Pouring herself a bourbon, she raised her glass to the man in the poster that dominated one wall of the dressing room. "Salut, my love," she said. "If all goes to plan we'll soon be together again." The door opened and the club manager, Silvio Manetti, walked in, just in time to catch her toast. He frowned distainfully at the poster, which was for a straight-to-DVD movie titled 'Arkon 3'. Silvio had been unfortunate enough to see the movie and thought its star ought to stick to his day job as an Avenger. What Jo saw in the guy he would never understand. "Great show tonight, Jo!" he said, as she inserted a cigarette into a short black holder and lit it. "They're always great, Silvio," she replied, blowing a long stream of smoke and examining her reflection, far more interested in this than she was in him. "Yes, well, have a good night, Jo," he said, reaching out to pat her shoulder then thinking better of it. She discouraged physical contact and for some reason he had never been tempted to push her on it. Neither had anyone else, none of them aware of the low-level subsonic signal that caused their reticence. "Goodnight, Silvio," she said, still focused on her reflection, "I'll see you tomorrow." When he had left, she sat back to enjoy her cigarette and her drink. When both were finished, she donned her full-length leather coat, threw the strap of her purse over her shoulder, and headed off into the night. She had just stepped out into the alley behind the club, her mind running through a particularly complicated mathematical problem involving quantum thermodynamics, when two men stepped out in front of her. One was tall, shaven-headed, and heavily muscled; the other was a few inches shorter, thin, and had long, greasy hair. Both were holding knives. "Your purse, lady," said greasy-hair. "Hand it over." "Oh, I don't think so," said Jo, amused, "but I promise not to hurt you boys if you stand aside and let me pass." "The bag, bitch!" snarled muscle-guy, reaching out for her. Moving faster than either of her would-be assailants could counter, Jo grabbed his hand and bent it back, the wrist breaking with an audible snap as she simultaneously kicked him between the legs. It felt like someone had hit him with an iron bar, and he went down hard. "Wayne!" cried greasy-hair, stabbing at her with his knife. Before it could connect Jo lashed out, her fist slamming into his jaw and shattering it. His legs buckled and he fell to the ground, unconscious. "I'd phone for an ambulance if I were you," she told Wayne, who was writhing on the ground and cupping his testicles with his good hand, "I think you'll find you're both in need of medical attention." So saying, she calmly stepped over him and made her way out of the alley, heading for her apartment. While she had been engaged with her ineffectual assailants, she had continued to think through the mathematical problem that had occupied most of her mind for the past few weeks, and several minutes ago she had solved it. This was it, the last piece of the puzzle now worked out. Which meant she was ready to finally call in on Doctor Hannah Pym, aka the Wasp, and her robot lover, Jocasta. And not a moment too soon. - 1 - Hannah Pym watched in admiration as Reed Richards stood at the whiteboard, explaining his theory of multiversal mirroring to her while the equations spilled out of him almost faster than he could write them down. The leader of the Fantastic Four was by general agreement the world's leading scientific intellect, a towering genius who could - and often did - invent five things before breakfast that lesser men would have spent years developing. He and Hannah had not always seen eye-to-eye but each respected the expertise of the other in their particular fields, although Reed being the polymath he was made him the leading light in far more than she. "It's not the fact there are alternate versions of us on parallel Earths that is surprising," Reed said as he wrote, "or that their experiences should diverge from our own. No, what's surprising is that we should then share experiences that happen subsequent to divergences significant enough to lead us down vastly different paths. That we do almost suggests there's such a thing as fate, that certain things are destined to happen to us across all the dimensions. Since fate can't be quantified mathematically and its existence would make a mockery of free will, there clearly has to be another explanation. This is where the concept of multiversal mirroring comes in. As you'll have seen from my initial equation, the fractal nature of..." "Reed Richards!" said an annoyed female voice. "Our guest came over to the Baxter Building for a girls' afternoon with me, not for you to drag her away and fill her head with your stuffy equations." This was Reed's wife Sue, aka the Invisible Woman, and another member of the FF. "Sorry, Sue," said Reed, sheepishly. "We needed to discuss the ionic stabilizer we'll be testing on Wonder Man tomorrow, but what with all that's happened to her lately I hadn't seen Doctor Pym in a while. Since she's one of the few people I know who could follow my math on this I couldn't resist running through it with her." "Honestly, it's okay, Sue," said Hannah, "Reed's theory is fascinating and I was happy to be his sounding-board. However, you're right; this isn't what I came over for." "Well, I guess you are still a scientist," said Sue, somewhat mollified, "but now you're also a pretty girl as well, and that's the side of you this afternoon should be all about." "No argument from me," said Hannah. "Catch you later, Reed." Reed nodded, his attention already back with his theory. "Oooh, that man can be so exasperating sometimes," said Sue as the two women headed off to another part of the building. "If he wasn't the father of my children and I didn't love him so much I would have to kill him." Turning a corner, they almost collided with the other two members of the Fantastic Four coming the other way. "Whoa, ladies!" said Johnny Storm (young, blond, handsome, cocky), aka the Human Torch. "Looking fine, but not looking where you're going!" "Stretcho wanted to see us in his lab," said his companion, gruffly. "That husband of yours has got some new gizmo that he needs to test, Susie, and as usual we're gonna be his guinea pigs." This was Ben Grimm, aka the Thing, and of the four of them he was the one who had got the rawest deal from the cosmic ray bombardment that had given them their powers. He had acquired super-strength, but his body now looked as if it was composed of orange rocks. "Doctor Pym," said Johnny, finally recognising his sister's companion. "Have you come here to see if Reed can turn you back into a man? Does this mean Benjy here is going to be the guinea pig in a sex-changing machine, because I've got to tell you, he'd make the world's ugliest woman." He laughed, but no one joined in. "Actually, Johnny, I don't want to change back," said Hannah, sweetly. "I'm happier now than I've ever been, and I'm here to have a girly afternoon with Sue." "Oh, ah, sorry," he said, face turning red. "Way to put your foot in it, matchhead!" said Ben, chuckling at his embarrassment. "Don't mind him, Hannah, and good for you!" "I really am sorry," said Johnny, obviously mortified, "It's okay, really," said Hannah, putting her hand on his arm and smiling. "I guess not everyone got the memo." "Yeah, well, okay," said Johnny, awkwardly, "I guess Ben and I had better get going now. Reed'll be wondering where we've got to." Based on how engrossed in his multiversal theory Reed had been when they left him, Hannah suspected he had by now forgotten even asking for them to be there. "I swear sometimes I can't believe Johnny and I are even related," said Sue as she watched them head off for their meeting with Reed. "Anyway, c'mon. You've seen Reed's lab, now you get to see mine." Sue's 'lab' was an impressively large room housing an impressively large number of closets, dressing tables, drawer units, and mirrors. Several shelves were given over to dummy heads wearing wigs, and the door of one closet had been slid back to reveal serried ranks of shelving bearing what must have been hundreds of pairs of shoes. "Wow, were you and Jan in some sort of clothing equivalent of the arms race?" asked Hannah, referring to her currently deceased ex-wife, Janet van Dyne. "I can see how it might look that way," said Sue with a chuckle, "but Jan and I just really, really loved clothes. And you'll find a lot of van Dyne originals hanging in my closets. Jan was underrated as a designer, but she had a real talent. God, I'm going to miss talking about each season's new collections with her!" "I miss her too," said Hannah, "and I mourn her loss. But you and I have both been in this game long enough to know we may see her again. Only in our line of work can someone have the status 'currently deceased'." "If she does come back, she's certainly going to be shocked at how much you've changed," said Sue, and they both laughed, though the laughter was tinged with sadness. "I'm more worried by what she would say about me wearing her clothes," said Hannah. "Yes," said Sue, "though I must say that Wasp costume you're wearing was always one of my favorites." "Mine, too," said Hannah, glancing down at the yellow costume that looked like a one-piece bathing costume, thigh boots, and gloves, all edged in black. "Personally, I would have taken longer to work my way up to one this revealing, but Jocasta insisted I wear a costume that showed off some cleavage. She thinks I'm still dipping my toe in the water when I should be taking the plunge, and these days she's a hard robot to contradict when she gets an idea in that positronic brain of hers." "I'm glad to hear she's getting more assertive," said Sue. "It's about time she started coming out of her shell more and building up her self-confidence. So, you and her - is it love?" "It's...complicated," said Hannah. "We're lovers but I'm not sure if it can more than that yet. Does it seem weird to you that I'm dating a robot, Sue?" "I'm the woman who's brother was married to a shape-shifting, alien Skrull, remember? So, no. All that matters is that you make each other happy. Oh, and she's right about the costume. You say you're happier being a woman and want to stay female, so embrace it and have some fun." "That's why I'm here," said Hannah, "for my first ever makeover." "And a makeover you shall have," said Sue. "Your light, daytime make-up is actually pretty good...." "Jocasta insisted I practice it until, to use her words, I was 'fit to be seen in public'." "Right, but now you're going to get a masterclass in how to glam up for an evening event. When I've finished with you you'll look like a movie star and be ready for any red carpet event." "And I want this, Sue, I really do," said Hannah, "but I've felt less nervous going into battle against Ultron." - 2 - "Delivery for Doctor Pym," said the blonde UPS woman at the door of what had been Janet van Dyne's Manhattan apartment and was now the home of Hannah Pym and her robot companion, Jocasta. The security scanners revealed nothing out of the ordinary about the woman, so Jocasta opened the door to her. "I'll need your signature," she said, handing Jocasta her clipboard, apparently unperturbed at encountering a silver robot. As Jocasta took the clipboard, so the woman lashed out with her other hand, too swiftly for her to counter, pressing a device against her that attached itself magnetically to her outer shell and sent out a pulse that instantly rendered her immobile. "I wasn't entirely sure my countermeasures programs would fool all your sensors, but it seems your Doctor Pym uses less advanced scans than mine did," said the woman. She smiled, and her features flickered then blinked out of existence, the deactivating of the hologram revealing the true appearance of the robot beneath. The face was Jocasta's, but gold rather than silver. "Hello, 'sister'," she said, "and goodbye." And with that Jocasta herself was deactivated, against her will, her systems powering down and awareness blinking out as totally as if a switch had been thrown, which in this case it had. When Jocasta was reactivated what seemed to her to be instantly but could have been anything from a moment to a millennium later, her ocular sensors came online and the first thing she saw was the other Jocasta standing before her, wearing a long fur coat and holding a freshly-lit cigarette in a short, black holder. "You know who I am, of course," she said. It was a statement not a question. "The Jocasta of an alternate Earth, designated 'Jocasta II' in the Avengers' Case Files. First encountered as a member of the Gatherers, a team made up of survivors from alternate Earths devastated by their version of the Avenger Sersi. Last encountered during an assault on the Vision by his doppelganger from another Earth, designated 'anti-Vision'. Your old personality was reported to have been irretrievably lost." "Reports of its demise were greatly exaggerated" she said, smiling and idly stroking her coat. "I do love fur, don't you? So many delightful things in Janet van Dyne's wardrobe." "So what happened to you?" "what happened is that my personality reasserted itself. Everyone assumed the anti-Vision, as you've so amusingly named him, had destroyed my old personality by forcing emotions onto my core programming. Except that I've always had emotions. How else could I have fallen in love with Simon and he with me? Within days of the anti-Vision affair I was myself again, a self-aware robotic lifeform on an Earth not my own. I used my inbuilt holographic image inducer to masquerade as a human woman and bided my time working as an exotic dancer until I was ready to make my move." "An exotic dancer?" said Jocasta, puzzled, "Why an exotic dancer?" "Because I like it when men look at me with desire in their eyes." She then took a drag on her cigarette, and intrigued Jocasta by exhaling with obvious relish. "Ah yes," she said, noticing the other robot's interest. "For you a cigarette is just a prop for when you play human, and you only simulate smoking. Not me. My creator, bless her, gave me the full range of senses a human has, including taste and smell, and a fully developed pleasure centre in my positronic brain. I can and do indulge in all the pleasures a human would, including smoking, eating, and drinking. A small internal disintegrator disposes of the food I swallow, and I recycle the drinks. In fact, I think I'll have a drink now. Pour me some of that fine 20 year old single malt Scotch of Doctor Pym's." Jocasta went to the drinks cabinet, did as her counterpart had ordered, then brought the Scotch to her. "Thank you," said Jocasta II, savoring the aroma of the whisky then taking a first, appreciative sip. "Ooh, that's good!" "Interesting," said Jocasta. "You've added an obedience sub-routine to my core programming. I have to do what you say and there there are blocks preventing me from acting against you in word or in deed. Why have you done this?" "So that you can't reveal I'm an imposter when I take your place," replied Jocasta II, putting her Scotch down and gripping her cigarette holder between her metal teeth before slipping out of the fur coat. Color aside, she looked identical to Jocasta. "Your external casing has been modified to match mine," said Jocasta. "The protuberances that used to differentiate us have been removed." "Which just leaves the color," said Jocasta II. She smiled, and as she did so her color switched from gold to silver. "There," she said, retrieving her Scotch and taking another sip. "Now no one will guess I'm not you." "There are however now two of us." "That won't be a problem," said Jocasta II. "While you were decactivated I altered your appearance. See for yourself." There was a full length mirror on one wall of the room. A single glance was enough to tell Jocasta what her doppelganger had done to her. "You have replaced the exterior of my head with another," she said. Where her head usually looked like that of a woman only made of metal, it was now a smooth ovoid whose point formed her chin and whose small, pinched features were cruder and a lot less human-looking. The overall effect was to make her appear more obviously robotic. Jocasta II had come up behind her, smiling at her counterpart's reaction to her new reflection. "Now all that remains," she said, taking another drag on her cigarette, "is the voice. Command AV4Q initiate." Jocasta felt her artificial larynx and the small, silent pump that moved air through it power down as, simultaneously, her back-up voice-synthesiser come online. She knew what this meant. "Now tell me who you are," said Jocasta II. "I am Jocasta, a self-aware robotic lifeform created by the robot Ultron using the brain-patterns of Janet van Dyne, the now deceased ex-wife of his creator, Doctor Hannah Pym, formerly known as Henry." Jocasta's voice was a flat electronic monotone, now totally lacking the subtleties and variety that had made it indistinguishable from human speech. "Very good," said Jocasta II, "but henceforth you will no longer refer to yourself as being self-aware. Load new identity file DM3E, and initiate. Now tell me who I am and what you are, and state your new operating protocols." "You are self-aware robotic lifeform designated Jocasta and the creator of this unit, designated MAID-1. Purpose of this unit is to serve Mistress Jocasta and Mistress Hannah. This unit will not speak or act in any way that would reveal it to be more than a non-aware service robot unless instructed otherwise by Mistress Jocasta." "Excellent!" said Jocasta II. "You can begin by tidying the room, MAID-1. Hannah will be back soon and I don't want her suspecting anything is wrong." So saying she threw back the rest of her Scotch and took a final, long drag on her cigarette before regretfully stubbing it out. Smoking was a pleasure she would have to forego from now on unless she was 'playing human', but if this masquerade was going to work she could not let Hannah Pym suspect anything was amiss. And getting her husband and baby back depended on it working. - 3 - "Hannah!" said Jocasta II, when Hannah Pym entered the apartment. She went over to her and they embraced. Kissing her felt odd, but Hannah smiled and didn't appear to notice anything amiss. Then she saw their new domestic servant and frowned. "What's this?" she asked. "A little project of mine," said Jocasta II. "I call her MAID-1. I built her to perform a range of menial housekeeping tasks for us. She's mainly constructed from my spares, which is why her external body casing is identical to my own. It would feel odd to have another robot around with my face, so I gave her a different head of course. She's not self-aware and has limited intelligence, but she responds to simple commands. Say hello to Mistress Hannah, MAID-1." "Hello, Mistress Hannah," said Jocasta, her voice a flat electronic drone. "Uh, hello, MAID-1," said Hannah, frowning. I haven't done anything wrong, have I?" said Jocasta II. "What? Oh no, no, Jocasta. It's just that seeing how MAID-1's body casing resembles your own just reminded me of that alternate universe version of you we encountered a few years ago." Jocasta II tensed. Had her masquerade been uncovered already? Had she given herself away in some fashion she was unaware of? "She had abilities you don't," continued Hannah. "In particular, she could fly. From what we know of your own construction I think we can hazard a guess as to how she achieves this." "The Wizard's anti-gravity discs." "Exactly. Ultron incorporated one of those discs, invented by the FF's foe the Wizard, in your construction to regulate your weight, and I'm glad he did. Being made of metal you weigh as much as a small car, but your internal disc can be set to cancel out enough weight so you tip the scales at no more than a flesh and blood woman of your height and build would. Without being able to regulate your weight you couldn't lie on top of me without crushing me. In the case of your counerpart, I suspect she has two such discs, with a greater range of adjustment, and that by controlling the angle that one is set against the other she's able to control the direction of her flight. Reed Richards has acquired several of those discs over the years so I could get one from him and give you the power of flight, too." "It's sweet of you to offer, Hannah," said Jocasta II, "but I'm happy as I am. That's not an upgrade I think I really need." More to the point, the last thing she wanted was Hannah Pym poking around in her innards. She might be identical to this world's Jocasta externally, but internally was a whole other matter. "OK," said Hannah, sounding disappointed. "Let me know if you ever change your mind." "I will, and thank you, Hannah. You're always thinking of me." Hannah smiled, laid her hand on the robot's cheek, then leaned in to kiss her softly on the lips. "I'll be in the lab if you want me," she said, and with that she went through the door that led to the sub-spatial dimension in which her lab resided, closing it behind her. Jocasta II let out an almost human sigh of relief. "So," she said, selecting an apple from the fruit basket on the coffee table and biting into it, "that went well. I don't think she suspects a thing. Do you?" "No," said Jocasta, "she believes you are me and that I am a non-sentient service robot. What do you intend to do next?" "Next," said Jocasta II, chewing her apple, "I intend to let Doctor Pym finish her work on the ionic stabilizer. During the night, while she's asleep, I'll make some adjustments to it based on calculations I've spent months working on. Then, when it's turned on, it will achieve the first of the two things I want to accomplish tomorrow." Reaching out, she laid her hand on the package she had been carrying while pretending to be a UPS employee. "This," she said, "will bring about the second." "What is it?" Jocasta II took another bite of her apple and regarded Jocasta thoughtfully. "Doctor Pym was born female on my Earth, and was only ever the Wasp. Her wife, Janet van Dyne, was Giant-Woman and they were founder members of our version of the Avengers. After Janet's death at the hands of the Grim Reaper, Hannah Pym constructed me and based my mind on Janet's brain patterns. Like your Doctor Pym she fell foul of Loki, though much sooner than in this world. She did not cast a spell on her directly but instead created a mystical figurine keyed to her and her alone. Ironically, by the time that trap was sprung Loki was already dead, killed by the Beyonder." "Your Doctor Pym was already female, so what were it's effects?" "Patience, my sister. That's something you'll discover tomorrow. Doctor Strange examined her and determined the spell could only be reversed by Loki, who was dead, so the transformation was permanent." Jocasta II smiled as she watched the penny drop for the other robot. "The figurine," said Jocasta. "What happened to it?" "Oh, it's quite safe," said Jocasta II, patting the package "quite, quite safe." "And the ionic stabilizer? Hannah and Reed Richards will be using it on Wonder Man tomorrow. What is your interest there?" "My husband," said Jocasta II. "Tomorrow is when I get my Simon back." "Simon. So your world's Simon Williams, the Avenger known as Wonder Man, was your husband?" "Yes. Simon was my ideal partner. As immortal and unaging as I, he also had the strength of a god and could have crushed me with his bare hands, which I found terribly exciting. But for all his might he was also tender and considerate and I never felt more feminine, more like a real woman, than when I was wrapped in his powerful arms. We both knew the other's flaws but it didn't matter to us. 'You're vain, selfish, and amoral', he told me, 'and I love you with all my heart!'. And, as artificial as it might be, I loved him with all of mine." Swallowing the last of her apple, Jocasta II dropped the core into a waste basket. "That's enough girl talk for now," she said. "This place needs vacuuming, MAID-1. Return to your duties." "Yes, Mistress Jocasta," said Jocasta, the command reverting her to MAID-1 mode. - 4 - "Thank you, MAID-1," said Hannah Pym, not looking up from her work as she took a coffee from the tray of snacks and drinks Jocasta had brought them. Not being able to tell Hannah who she really was was immensely frustrating for Jocasta, but it was impossible for her to overcome the blocks her counterpart had installed. "Hey are you guys going to be finished with your pre-activation checks anytime soon?" asked Simon Williams, who was secured to the vertical, cruciform rig that dominated one end of the laboratory, "Only I've been strapped in like this for almost an hour now and it's getting kinda boring." "It won't be much longer now," said Reed Richards, stretching one arm of his amazingly flexible body to set a switch on a console some twenty feet away from him, "Hannah and I are almost done." Jocasta II was also in the lab, and casting longing glances at Wonder Man, glances that Jocasta was sure the others could not have failed to notice had they not been so busy with their tasks. "I'm going to take one final look around inside the stabilizer," said Hannah, shrinking down to her Wasp size and taking flight on the gossamer wings that sprouted from her back. Her Wasp costume today was the one Janet van Dyne had been wearing when Hank Pym had proposed to her, but Jocasta doubted there was any significance to the choice. It was high-necked and Jocasta assumed Hannah had chosen it over one that showed off her cleavage in order not to distract Reed. If so, Jocasta considered this unnecessarily cautious on Hannah's part. When Reed Richards was engrossed in a scientific project a troupe of naked dancing girls could high-step by him and he would not notice them. Simon Williams aka Wonder Man had once been an ordinary man but now his body was suffused with ionic energy. Usually he wore dark glasses to disguise the most obvious sign of this status but here, with those glasses absent, minature suns blazed where human eyes should be. "If our calculations are correct this device will stabilize your ionic core," said Reed, "and eliminate the periodic overloads that have caused you to explode in the past." "Good," said Simon, "because pulling myself back together after one of those is never easy. One day, I might not be able to manage it at all." "It all looks ship-shape inside," said Hannah, flying out of a vent in the side of the stabilizer and immediately resuming here full five foot four inch height. "I think we're good to go." "You don't know how happy I am to hear that," said Simon, with feeling. The ionic stabilizer was a large and imposing device, taller than a man and with a laser condenser at the front that made the whole thing resemble a cannon. Reed and Hannah got behind the shield at its rear and donned dark, smoked-glass eye protectors. At that instant, when they were momentarily distracted, Jocasta II placed a finger against a data port and fired a concentrated beam of data into the device, overriding settings in its software and activating the sub-routines she had secretly installed the previous night. Jocasta saw all this but was powerless to stop her or to alert Reed and Hannah. Whatever happened next was out of her hands. Unaware the stabilizer had been compromised, Reed Richards threw the power switch and the device powered up, the laser condenser aimed at Simon Williams starting to glow, a rising hum filling the lab. "All dials where they should be?" asked Reed. "Affirmative on all," said Hannah. "Then this is it. Brace yourself, Simon." With that, he flicked a switch and a crimson beam erupted from the end of the condensor and struck Wonder Man. Who started to glow. A second later, he exploded in a blinding, noiseless flash that filled the room. "What the hell...?!!" said Hannah. "But...that's impossible!" "Impossible or not, it just happened," said Reed, "and we need to reverse it." Jocasta had never seen anyone be as calm in dangerous situations as Reed Richards. The man never seemed to lose his composure. He was calmly reading the various dials on the stabilizer and then altering settings accordingly. And after her momentary shock, Hannah joined him in that task. The cruciform rig had contained Simon's energy, which was now swirling around within the confines of its magnetic fields. Whatever her counterpart had done, Jocasta knew she would have arranged things so that as soon as the deed was done her changes would automatically have erased themselves from the software in the device and removed all trace of their ever having been there. All she could hope now was that Reed and Hannah could undo what she had done. But why had Jocasta II done it? What did attempting to destroy this universe's Simon Williams gain her? "Okay, I don't know what just happened," said Reed, "and we can worry about that later, but all the settings have been restored and we need to get Simon back now. Is everything where it should be on your end?" "Yep, everything is properly set here," said Hannah, her gaze racing over the array of dials before her. "Let's do it." "Agreed," said Reed, once again flicking the fateful switch. As before, a crimson beam shot out of the condenser, deep into the heart of the contained energy roiling about the cruciform rig. And around that beam, a figure slowly started to coalesce, the energy resolving intself into a human shape. As it solidified so the glow gradually faded until there in the rig once more was Simon Williams, unconscious. Turning the stabilizer off, Hannah, Reed, and Jocasta II raced over and unstrapped him. As he fell forward into their arms he briefly regained consciousness. Looking at Jocasta II, he smiled and said: "Jo." In response she emitted what sounded like a short burst of highpitched static, after which Simon smiled again and lapsed back into unconsciousness. In that instant, Jocasta realised that this was not her world's Wonder Man. Somehow, Jocasta II had achieved the impossible and ressurrected her husband. "What was that?" asked Hannah, looking at Jocasta II curiously. "A glitch," she said. "My back-up voice synthesizer momentarily came online and tried to override my artificial larynx. I'll run a diagnostic later to ensure it doesn't happen again. But never mind that. We should get Simon back to our apartment. You and Reed can worry about what went wrong with the stabilizer later." "Yes, okay, good idea," said Hannah, and she, Reed, and the two robots lifted Simon and carried him through the door from the pocket dimension to their apartment. Unlike the others, Jocasta knew that what her counterpart had emitted had been anything but simple static. No, it had been speech, superfast and condensed into one short microburst. She was capable of hearing it however as, evidently, was this Simon Williams. What Jocasta II had said was: "Simon, my love, you're back! I've missed you more than words can say! But be warned, this is not our Earth. Everyone believes you to be the Wonder Man of this world and you need to play along and give them no cause to think otherwise until I can explain everything. I love you, my darling, and soon you, and I, and our daughter will be reunited as a family once again." Daughter? As they were lowering Simon onto the couch in their apartment Jocasta tried to imagine how he and Jocasta II might have conceived a daughter, but she could not. Reed had pulled out a handheld scanner of some sort and was waving it over Simon's body and frowning at the results. "Simon's ionic nature makes this sort of diagnosis an inexact science." he said, "but he appears merely to be unconscious. With a little rest he should come to within the next hour or so." "That's a relief!" said Hannah. "But what happened, Reed? We both checked the stabilizer over thoroughly and that just should not have happened." "No, it shouldn't," said Reed, drumming his fingers on the figurine that sat on the coffee table, "and the only way it can have is if someone deliberately sabotaged the device, but if so how did they manage to do so without us detecting it?" As he pondered the problem, Reed's gaze moved downwards and he became aware for the first time of just what he had been idly drumming his fingers on. "Hmmm. this is interesting," he said, picking it up. "It looks to be pre-Cataclysmic, possibly Hyperborean." "What? Let me see that," said Hannah, frowning. "I thought I was familiar with Jan's art collection, but I don't remember that piece at all." If she could have, Jocasta would have called out a warning to Hannah or even shielded her from the figurine with her body, but all she could do was watch as Hannah reached out for it.... "Owww!" said Hannah, pulling her hand back as swiftly as she would had she touched a hotplate. "The moment I made contact it felt like a powerful electric current shot up my arm." Then, as they watched, she changed. It was, Jocasta thought, like watching a fast morph. Hannah shrank down from a grown woman to a teenage girl, went through puberty in reverse as she became a young child, then a toddler, and finally a baby, lost among the folds of the Wasp costume that had collapsed to the floor around her. It was over in seconds. Jocasta got to the Hannah first, picking the baby up and cradling her in her metal arms as she started to cry. "There, there," she cooed. "No need to cry. You're safe now." So that was it, Jocasta realised. It had gone just as her counterpart had planned all along. And now she had her daughter back. - 5 - The instant she touched the figurine, sending a powerful jolt up her arm, Hannah Pym knew she was in trouble. At first, she thought it had somehow activated the Pym particles in her system and that she was shrinking down to her Wasp size, but a glance downwards quickly dispelled that hope. As she watched, her breasts shrank away to nothing, and took her other adult curves with them. She was getting younger! Watching them in amazement, she saw her hands and arms first become the skinny limbs of a child, then the pudgy ones of a toddler. Her legs no longer able to support her, she fell into a sitting position, cushioned by her baby's rump and the voluminous Wasp costume billowing around her. Then Jocasta II was there, disentangling her from her the bra and thong she was lost among and lifting her tiny form skywards in her enormous hands. Hannah was in shock and, to her surprise, she started to cry. "There, there," cooed Jocasta II, cradling her in her metal arms. "No need to cry. You're safe now." "Interesting," said Reed, studying the figurine thoughtfully. "When I touched this it had no effect on me, but it did on Hannah. Which means it was keyed to her and this was deliberate. Do you know where this came from, Jocasta?" "It was delivered yesterday by UPS," said Jocasta II, rocking Hannah back and forth and calming her greatly. "I thought it was something Doctor Pym had ordered so I unwrapped it and put it out on the table. Did I do wrong?" "There's no way you could have known," said Reed, "but what with this and what happened to Simon it's clear some enemy is targeting you. Do you mind if I take the figurine and wrapping with me back to the Baxter building so I can run some tests on them?" "Not at all. MAID-1 will retrieve the wrapping from the garbage for you." She nodded to the other robot, who went off the kitchen. Hannah wanted to tell them that she still had her adult intelligence, but when she tried to talk all that came out was gurgling 'baby talk'. In response, Jocasta II smiled at her and kissed her gently on the forehead. It was frustrating, but Hannah realised she would have to wait until it occurred to them to have a telepath scan her mind. "Ah, here it is," said Jocasta II , as Jocasta returned with the wrapping. "Right, well, do you think you can manage here by yourself for now?" "I'll be fine, Reed," said Jocasta II. "My databanks contain all I need to know about caring for a baby. And I will protect her from any threat, with my very existence if need be." "I know you will," he said, then he turned to the baby. "Hannah, I don't know whether or not you're still capable of understanding me but we're going to do everything possible to undo this and restore you to adulthood. On that you have my word." When Reed had gone, MAID-1 surprised Hannah by coming over and peering down at her with that minimalist ovoid face of hers. "Is she okay?" she asked, in her monotone electronic voice. "She's perfect," said Jocasta II smiling down at the baby in her arms, "but she is going to be hungry. The energy consumed by her transformation will have taken a lot out of her." That's when Hannah realised she was indeed hungry, almost ravenously so. With the stress of what had happened and her attempts to communicate she had been blocking this out. Not any more. She let out a whimper. "Ooh, you poor little thing!" said Jocasta II. "Don't you worry, Mommy's got just what you need. Mommy? Hannah had little time to ponder the meaning of this, before Jocasta II raised her to her left breast, a small panel at its tip sliding back and a rubber teat emerging. Astonished but unable to ignore her hunger, she offered no resistance as the robot manouevered the teat into her mouth, hungrily suckling at her metal breast. "Oh, I've missed this!" said Jocasta II, dreamily. "You prepared the baby formula in advance and loaded it into that device in your breast," said MAID-1. "Have you always had that capability?" "Not initially, no," said Jocasta II. "When my Hannah Pym created me I was childlike at first, but she nurtured me, taught me, and after four weeks I had matured to a full adult intelligence. I started out as her surrogate daughter, but within the year she had become mine." "When she touched the figurine and activated Loki's spell". "Yes. You've seen how it reverses the aging process...how rapidly it turned her into a baby. I was already in a relationship with Simon at the time, and so Hannah became our child. She brought out maternal feelings in me I hadn't known were there and we bonded as mother and baby in a way I would not have thought possible. That's when I had the suckling unit installed in the cavity behind my left breast. Breast-feeding Hannah was a big part of what brought us so close together. when Simon and I were wed a few months later, my happiness was complete. I was a wife and mother and everything was perfect. Then Sersi, our Sersi, went mad. Simon and Hannah were killed and I almost went out of my mind with grief. Having always had emotions I wouldn't dream of being without them, but I had never imagined anything could hurt so much. Yet here we are and I have them both back. Now be quiet and let me savour this experience. It's important that Hannah and I start bonding as mother and baby." For Hannah, still suckling at the robot's breast, this was all almost too much to take in. So this was not her Jocasta but the Jocasta of the Gatherers. She had somehow ressurrected her husband in place of this Earth's Wonder Man and had brought a mystical figurine of Loki's here in order that Hannah should be transformed into the baby girl she now was. Hannah had no idea how she was going to get out of this particularly since she was now pretty sure that the one person who would have been best placed to help - her own Jocasta - had been turned into MAID-1 and so taken out of the game. When Hannah had had her fill, Jocasta II burped her then placed her face down on the table. From behind a chair she produced a bag, from which she took a disposable diaper, quickly fastening it around the baby's middle. "I'll let you change her diapers, MAID-1," said Jocasta II to the other robot, who had been silently watching. "One disadvantage of having a sense of smell is there are some odours you really want to avoid." "Yes, Mistress Jocasta," replied MAID-1...replied Jocasta. Jocasta II then removed the remaining items from the bag: a small white dress and a pair of knitted white booties. Gently, she got Hannah into these, and then carefully lifted her. Cradling her baby, she began to rock her slowly back and forth, singing a lullaby. Against her will, Hannah felt herself becoming drowsy. "Have you prepared everything?" Jocasta II asked the other robot. "Yes," replied Jocasta. "I assembled it before bringing coffees to the laboratory." "Excellent!" said Jocasta II, and carried the baby through to the bedroom where a newly constructed crib stood in the corner. Lowering Hannah onto the blankets, she buckled her into the safety restraints then tucked her in. The final thing Hannah drowsily recalled before falling asleep was Jocasta II gently placing a pacifier in her mouth. What woke her, an indeterminate time later, were sounds of laughter and squeals of joy. Opening one eye, Hannah saw Jocasta II, her gold color restored, and Simon Williams in a passionate embrace, their hands all over each other. When they came up for air - not that either of them actually breathed - each gazed at the other adoringly. "I almost can't believe you're here," said Jocasta II, tracing her husband's features with her fingers. "I remember Sersi starting the reaction inside me that caused me to explode, caused me to die," said Simon, "but for me it feels like only minutes passed until you brought me back. How did you manage that, Jo?" "When I found myself stranded here, I started following the exploits of this Earth's Wonder Man obsessively. I knew he wasn't you, but I could pretend he might have been. Imagine my astonishment when, after he exploded, he eventually managed to pull himself back together. If he could do it, why hadn't you? This world has several ionic beings and I pulled down all the data on them I could find and followed all the theoretical literature on the subject and on multiple Earths. After much study, I deduced that such a reintegration was only possible in this, the 'prime reality', the one all the others are reflections of, but there was a problem. As long as their Wonder Man was here and already reintegrated it blocked the reintegration of any other Wonder Man. There was only one solution." "Oh no, Jo!" said Simon, sounding horrified. "You didn't!" "Please let me finish, sweetie," she said. "Having realised what needed to be done, I spent months doing the necessary calculations to establish the settings the ionic stabilizer that Reed Richards and Doctor Pym were building would need so that when turned on it would both disintegrate their Wonder Man and pull your ionic energy from our Earth and reintegrate you in his place. And it worked!" "But...you killed him, Jo! How could you bring me back if it meant killing someone?" "You must know I couldn't kill anyone, my darling," she said, laying a metal hand on his cheek. "Ionic beings like you and he can't actually die. And while him being here in one piece stops any Simon Williams of another Earth reintegrating, the same is not true of him." "You mean...? "Yes. Their Simon Williams will pull himself together again, and soon." "So why all this subterfuge. Couldn't you have just approached this world's Avengers and asked for their help?" "When we met before I was a member of the Gatherers, a group opposed to them. They had no reason to believe me and I could not take the chance they would turn me down. That's why I took the place of their Jocasta, turning her into MAID-1. I knew that even if I could convince them to help me bring you back, they would not let me have my baby." She pointed to the crib and Hannah realised that Simon had not actually noticed she was there. They had been locked in a steamy embrace when they entered the bedroom and his back had been to her ever since. He noticed her now, though. "Hannah?" he said in wonderment, coming over and lifting her out of the crib. "But how is this possible, Jo? I'm made of ionic energy but Hannah is flesh and blood, and I saw her die." "Isn't it wonderful?" said Jocasta II, sliding an arm around his waist. "Our family is finally back together again." "Yes, but how?" said Simon. "When I first came to this world I brought Loki's figurine with me to remind me of our daughter. This world's Doctor Pym was male at the time, but he recently became female - and at the hands of Loki, no less. As a robot and a logical being I would not originally have entertained such an idea, but my long association with humans and the things I have experienced let me recognize this was a sign. Doctor Pym was now female and I had the figurine so it was obviously fated that I bring them together. The universe had shown me a way to get my baby back; it *wanted* me to have her back." "But she's not our Hannah, Jo," he said, gently, "and we can't keep her. What you did was wrong." "But I miss Hannah so much!" said Jocasta II. "I know you do, honey. I miss her, too. But you have to put their Jocasta back the way she should be and then we all need to have a meeting with the Avengers." Jocasta II stared into her husband's face for a minute or so before slowly nodding in agreement. Then she buried her face in his shoulder and started to shake. Simon put his free arm around her and Hannah realised she was witnessing something she had never seen before: a robot sobbing. - Epilogue - Working the coffee stall beside the lake in Central Park was a way for student Mary Strauss to earn some much needed pocket money during the long summer recess. It was also an opportunity to check out pretty girls, like the blonde and brunette on table four. The brunette was dressed like a businesswoman - tailored summer-weight skirt suit, four inch heels, dark stockings - and looked enough like Angelina Jolie to be her younger sister, but it was her companion who interested Mary. Whenever she saw two beautiful women together - and they were both seriously beautiful - Mary's first thought was always to wonder whether or not they were a couple. When she took their order she had heard the blonde refer to the other woman as "sister", so in this case no, which was good. It let her fantasize she had a chance with the blonde, who was definitely Mary's type, even though she knew the woman was way out of her league. Poised and elegant, she was wearing three inch heels and a stylish grey trouser suit, and bore an uncanny resemblance to the young Cheryl Ladd (a major crush of Mary's since watching 'Charlie's Angels' re-runs as a child, and whose famous 1970s poster still hung on the wall over her bed). Mary arrived back at the table with their coffees as the blonde was inserting a cigarette into a short, black holder. On impulse, Mary reached into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out her lighter. "Allow me," she said. "Why thank you!" said the woman, leaning in to take the light. "You're welcome, ma'am," said Mary. The blonde exhaled a long stream of smoke then give her a dazzling smile. Mary walked back to the stall flushed and grinning like an idiot. The memory of that smile was going to keep her warm tonight. * "From her elevated heart-rate I'd say our waitress is attracted to you," said Jocasta. "Really?" said Jocasta II, glancing at the retreating waitress. "Interesting. Unfortunately for her I'm only attracted to men." "Yes, and that puzzles me. We both have minds based on the brain-patterns of our respective Janet van Dynes, but yours was a lesbian." "Actually, she wasn't," said Jocasta II, pouring a sachet of sugar into her coffee and stirring it slowly. "My Janet loved men. The only woman she was ever attracted to was our Hannah Pym, who was her soulmate. Had they ever broken up, she would have gone back to men. Also, while they provided the templates for our minds, we are not them. They may have been our starting point, but we've ended up as very different people. Which reminds me - I have a question for you. When copying your memories in order to impersonate you, I discovered one of you telling Doctor Pym that although your mind was based on Janet's, and your body shaped like a woman, gender was a choice for you. It wasn't for me. My body may be made of metal but I'm a woman to my core. I don't know if there's such a thing as a soul but if there is, and if I have one, that soul is female." "I was attempting to reassure Doctor Pym after her switch from Henry to Hannah," said Jocasta, "and though I don't identify as strongly with being a woman as you clearly do, I would still not be happy to have my positronic brain placed in a body modelled after a man. So yes, I am a woman, too." Jocasta II took a sip of her coffee and stared at the other robot thoughtfully. "And what of your human face?" she asked. "I've worn this face, the face of my alter-ego Jo Carter, long enough now that it seems almost as much my real face as the metal one beneath the hologram. Even alone in my apartment I would often leave my image inducer on and Jo Carter's face in place. How about you?" "Of the several faces I had loaded into my image inducer, Angelina Jolie's was always the one I liked best, the one I felt most comfortable with. I could not keep using it in public, for obvious reasons, so I modified it enough that I looked like a possible family member rather than like her. It's not logical for one face to feel more comfortable than any other, but it does." "Oh, I think it's very logical. I think these faces in some way reflect our true selves. They represent the women we would be if we were human." She took another sip of coffee then a long drag on her cigarette, clearly enjoying both. Jocasta envied her. If - no, when - Hannah was restored to adulthood, Jocasta would ask her to upgrade her own senses to the same level. "Your senses are impressive," she said, "and clearly much in advance of my own. I am however puzzled as to how you have a sense of touch. Our metal shells are hard and unyielding and while I have sensors that enable me to feel things in certain areas of my body I do not have anything like the full body sensations you appear to. How was this accomplished?" "When my internal image inducer projects a hologram over my body of Jo Carter or of anyone else, that hologram is several microns thick. My sensors are able to detect when anything enters that holographic field and my positronic brain interprets this as touching or being touched. If I want to have a full body sense of touch when appearing as my metal self I project a holographic image of my metal form over the real thing. That last was essential when Simon and I were...well, you know." "So, Simon," said Jocasta. "We arranged to meet here so that you could tell me what had been decided about you and him over the past few weeks." "Considering what I did, the Fantastic Four and the Avengers were very kind and reasonable. They didn't seek any punishment, and Simon and I get to stay here and live together in my apartment. I think they quite like the idea of having a spare Wonder Man in reserve, to be frank, and Simon has agreed to be your Simon's stand-in when he films 'Arkon 7'. Since it's an established legal identity, I'll carry on living as Jo Carter, but I'll be giving up my job as an exotic dancer. I have my husband back, and he's the only man whose attention I need." She paused to take another drag on her cigarette, and seemed almost nervous as she asked: "How is the baby...how is Hannah doing?" "She seems to be healthy and happy," said Jocasta. "Sue is babysitting for me this afternoon. Reed had a couple of telepaths scan her and they both independently confirmed she is a baby in mind as well as body. Fortunately, her adult memories are still there but locked away, though she can't currently access them." "But they are letting you be her guardian, yes? This may be the prime reality, the one that all others are reflections of, but in many ways my own America was more socially advanced than this one. My Simon never lost his fortune so we lived a life of luxury and had a full domestic staff. Which means that I, a robot, had human maidservants, something I can't imagine happening here. I was legally a person and had all the rights that go with that status. We were legally married, too, but in this world most places don't even allow people of the same gender to marry." "I do not understand that one either - humans can be strange about some things. And, yes, my legal status is not clear. However, Hannah left specific instructions that I was to be allowed to take care of her should anything happen to her, and both the Fantastic Four and the Avengers weighed in with the authorities on my behalf." "Can I see her, at some point?" asked Jocasta II, hesitantly. "Yes," said Jocasta, "but only when there is also someone else present." "I would never harm her in any way, nor would I now seek to keep her for myself, but such caution is logical. I'd do the same were our positions reversed. But, thank you. I'm not sure I deserve the kindness you've shown me and I know that none of this could have happened without you not only not wanting to press any charges against me but arguing on my behalf. After what I did to you...." "I understand," said Jocasta, placing her hand over the other robot's...the other *woman's*...hand. "I understand why you did what you did, that it was done out of grief and out of love. I saw that for myself when you were sobbing in Simon's arms. How then could I want you punished?" "Thank you," said Jocasta II. "I've been calling you it ironically but now I see it's true. You really are my sister." "In a lot of ways, you're more advanced than me, and I had thought you felt things more deeply than I do but I now know that's not the case. I love Hannah Pym and I want her restored to adulthood," said Jocasta, steel in her voice. "That means finding our Loki and getting him to undo the spell she's under. I'll do whatever it takes to find him and make him do so." "Whatever it takes." The End. ****************** Note: The story of the Gatherers was woven through Bob Harras' much underated run on AVENGERS vol.1 from #355-375. Jocasta II appears in varying degrees in the last four of these. She also appears in the VISION 4-issue mini-series of 1994 which, although also written by Harras, is nowhere near as good. That's where the 'anti-Vision' story I refer to occurred. Those eight issues contain her total comics career to date. All we learn of her is that she's from a parallel Earth devastated by their version of Sersi, and that she was married to their Simon Williams, now deceased. Beyond this, she was pretty much a blank slate and the personality and additional backstory she has in this tale are entirely of my creation. Given how this tale ended, I'm sure you can guess where I'd be going with the next sequel, if I ever get around to writing it. Oh, and it is of course part of Loki's spell that telepaths can't detect that Hannah still has her adult mind. When you're the God of Mischief you're pretty good at, well, mischief.