((Collab between NarcissisticPotato, LetterBee and QuietThinker))

After a long day of attempting to hire immature Metas, Ruby was well and truly fed-up with work. Of course, perfecting Aperture's top-secret line of battle-droids didn't fall under work so she was eagee to get back to work on them.

Once she had slipped into something more comfortable, she flicked on some music before getting to work on the droids. This one, particular model she was working on had problems with spinal movement so naturally, she had to open up everything and will the onboard-AI to find the source of the problem, which it quickly complied with.

When Mark actually got into the room, she looked a little crazy, lying flat on top of the overturned robotand wearing not much beyond a long t-shirt and her underwear. Upon hearing a knock on her open door, she frowned and turned with a dark glint in her eyes. "Hey! This place is off-limits!"

He blinked. His eyes wandered between the woman before him, the contraption she was sprawled across and the stereo blaring behind her before he finally gave his reply. "I'm here as a body guard of sorts." Ruby's glare got a seemingly disinterested stare in return, as Mark remained unmoved in the doorway.

Ruby almost fell off the robot in disgust. A bodyguard? How dare they! Keeping a cool demeanour on the outside, she subconsciously blinked at him for a few seconds before narrowing her eyes and letting an almost amused humpf out. "Don't think so, hot-shot. I'm Aperture's star-player, they don't need to have someone back me up!" The thing is, she had no idea what decisions they had made on her behalf. After checking her messages, her features contorted. "I do not need a bodyguard so you can head on back to wherever the hell they found you!"

His head leant to the side. After a short but calculated silence, Mark spoke. "Alright then, let me put it another way; Aperture seems to think you're important enough to warrant some additional protection. I'm here simply as an acknowledgment. Better?" It was as if that same expression was etched into his face.

They faced off for what felt like minutes but in reality was only a few seconds. The music died away in the background and the room fell into an eerie silence as she slid down from the robot and walked, barefooted, towards him. He had the clear height advantage between them but that didn't stop her from leering at him. "You listen here. How about we just say that you're doing your job and you stay the Hell out of my way." Ruby was working on things beyond Aperture and the last thing she needed was a rat - Ruby had the capability to be one of the most intelligent humans in existence so she wasn't being fooled by Taylor. She knew what he could do but that didn't mean he could figure out something that was beyond her powers. Little did he know that Ruby was rewriting the entire architecture behind the new line of droids. Taylor thought that Ruby could be a pawn in his little game but she had her plans. Eden would become a reality, but not with Taylor at its helm.

Ruby knew the guy in front of her but she couldn't precisely remember his name. All she remembered was that she wanted to study him after hearing his nerves could transmit signals at a rate that allowed him to process things incredibly fast. Someone like him would be a good lab-rat, not a good bodyguard. However, her interest was still piqued.

The world stopped as he peered over her indignant shoulder at the droid. He couldn't entirely tell what Ruby was doing with it, but it looked fully functional. Mark had a faint fascination with tech, partly because he couldn't use most of it, and he was interested to see what the technopath was capable of. He refocused on the angry eyes in front of him and time flowed once again. "Can I not get in your way a little bit?"

Of course, to Ruby he was simply staring at her for a grand total of a few milliseconds while he analyzed her room. Sighing, she unhooked her arms from in front of her chest and pressed her fingers against her temples. "Yes. Whatever. Just don't touch anything." She informed him, stepping to the side and allowing him to pass before she moved back towards her current project. "You know, for someone who supposedly has all the time in the world to make decisions, you seem slow." Ruby fired at him, her fingers hovering over a console before she inputted some commands and lowered the table. If she was going to work on this thing, she would rather not be so exposed.

Stepping into her workspace, he took a longer and more noticable scan of the room. "So you know of me?" Mark said, as a subtile smile escaped from his lips and he cocked an eyebrow. "And I seem.. slow?" It was difficult to tell if he had purposely slowed his speech in response; that sort of cheek didn't quite fit with his demeanor.

Rolling her eyes in response, she nodded slowly as she used her powers to draw down two robotic arms from the ceiling. Under her influence, they poked at the spine before completely lifting the whole thing out. "Yes, I know of you. I asked if I could try my new nerve technology but it seemed that you're important enough to warrant some sort of additional protection." She repeated his phrase from earlier as she frowned at the robotic spine which writhed for a few seconds before dying. "I expected someone like you to be very sharp and not waste their normal time looking around a room when they could use their powers to do it in a millisecond." The robots quickly guided the faulty spine over to a nearby box as she looked around for a spare.

Now he smiled, leaving an open silence while he examined the intricate details on the arms. They moved quickly, dislodging the apparently damaged part with remarkable precision before storing it away. He found himself almost jealous of their dexterity, briefly argued the pros of cybernetics before dismissing them with the cons. This brought him back to something his charge mentioned, and made him grateful for his importance. That was something he would not bring up of his own volition. Time snapped back as the hardware hit the box and his smile died.

Then, someone else just had to enter the room.

Said someone was a strikingly beautiful woman, clad in a vividly scarlet robe with a white belt, her red eyes accentuated by her long black hair. She was accompanied by an escort of two hulking brutes, men who were so muscled that it was unnatural, and who were clad only in loose pants, showing their chitin-covered skin all over. This chitin, Wire would observe, was stronger than steel and ceramic armor, enough to parry even bullets. They were like a combination of the Incredible Hulk and The Thing, having the former's green coloration. The woman, her face bemused, looked at Wire and Ruby, and spoke:

"Ah, so you two have made yourselves known to each other, then?" she then focused soleley on Wire. "You know, if you'd let me modify you, I can give you a form that would suit your abilities better; perhaps a dragon? I can make dragons out of people now, you know; and Ruby can ride you; how's that sound?"

Apart from the rather cliché opposition between industry and nature, Ruby had a deep resentment of Isabella. It wasn't about the looks - Isabella was a clear winner when it came to that but it was the fact that she thought she could come over and try to play with her toys! She didn't like Mark but he was hers. Lifting a heavy looking spine from a container, she carried it to the robot before having the arms lift it in. Almost immediately, the robot hummed with energy and sat up before sliding to its feet, clearly under Ruby's influence. Behind her, it appeared as a hulking mass of machinery and heavy weaponry. "How about you pull your nose out of my business and get the hell out of my lab, Isabella? Mark doesn't want whatever it is that you do to those... things." Her last words were aimed at the two brutes beside the woman.

"With a Phoenix suit, he can be a lot more useful to us and then, he doesn't have to look like a lizard for the rest of his life. Now, be a good little tree-hugger and excuse yourself, please."

This was a new situation; two girls were fighting over him. Of course, one of them was Isabella. As ravishing as she tried to appear, she would not get inside of his head. He would have given his own cutting remark to the woman in red if Ruby hadn't done so first. She didn't seem to share his respect for pauses. Regardless, her statement was in fact false; he could not utilise a Phoenix suit. It worked with a HUD which did not work with him, and getting rid of it left the pilot with highly restricted vision. Too restricted. Of course, the prospect of becoming a dragon was not the preferred alternative, and her defense was appreciated. Even if it was about to be cut down by that devil woman.

"Don't you know?" spoke Isabella, "Wire here cannot use a Phoenix Suit - his powers prevent him from doing so. But, still, I didn't come here for Mark, I came here to talk about something else." Her face then turned grave. "'I directed another mercenary Meta - Nikolai, I think his name is, to where the FBI's Rapid Response Team was hiding. Not merely that, but I also got some members of the Mafia to agree to having their abilities 'enhanced'; basically, I implant them with small worms that increase their strength, abilities, and reflexes like Wire here, but in exchange, when they die, the worms burst out of the dead bodies as giant facehuggers. And, no, they don't know that," her voice turned gloating again.

"Either way, I'm doing my share of the work, and don't have to rely upon the enemy having an outdated sense of honor and mercy to get me out.."

The way she spoke, she almost implied that she did all the work. they wouldn't have even discovered the location of the Rapid Response Team if it wasn't for Ruby taking control of Cedric's microcomputers and tracking Constantine's transmission to the safehouse. "Sounds like a bloodbath. I can throw some battle droids in there if you really need the backup. I also have two Metas which might interest you." Ruby switched to business mode, forgetting her grudges from before. "Speaking of which, I don't want any of them touched. I know you like interfering with living things but we need them."

"Don't worry," spoke Isabella, "I know the difference between business and pleasure," obliquely implying that she respected Ruby when she got serious. "And, yes, I can use the battle droids. As for the Metas, you mean the Twins, or Scarlett and Loki. You know, the latter might actually be willing to be touched, but don't worry, I still won't do so - my power works only on the consenting, anyway." Did Ruby actually forget that?

Ruby's eyes flicked to Mark and wondered, for the briefest of moments, whether he fell under business or pleasure with Isabella. Both images in her head were equally revolting so she abandoned all thoughts of that. "Well, Isabella, let's not pretend that you have certain ways of making them a little more... willing."

"True. Simple promises of power, money, drugs, and of course, good old seduction; Aster was very willing to fall for that last part. Turned him into a Fake Angel as well, something blashphemous to offend both baseline and religiously inclined Metas. I can also send him out, if you want."

"He's useless to us now, they're crying for his head from here to New York. Ask Taylor first, I suppose, he might have a few more plans for him." She finished, sending her robot back to join a short line of other robots she had repaired. "Oh and Isabella..." She suddenly switched back. "... don't ever try take any of my toys away from me again. You will regret it." With that, Ruby turned sharply and padded into the sleeping-area of her room, which quickly closed itself off to them.

Mark watched her go, taking the time to decide how he felt about her sudden possessiveness. Concluding that he'd need more data before he could make a judgement, his eyes turned to Isabella. They flitted between the two things besides her, before resting upon the woman herself with some stone.   "..You should go."

"Some people can't take a decent tease," spoke Isabella, before she elegantly twirled and left, her 'bodyguards' with her.