[Brainwashing, Dronification]

“You won’t get away with this, Techmistress!”

“Oh, but I very well will. And you’ll serve as a piece in my plan as well, once you’ve been erased like your silly little friends!”

The laughing maniac who had complete and utter control over this situation was a woman merely known as Techmistress. A Villain that had been lurking in the underbelly of Trinity City, waiting for her chance to strike. And now that there were so many more Villains active than ever before, she could afford the chance to grab a hero when they were worn down from fighting everyone else.

Her hero of choice? A simple-minded but strong girl by the name of Terra. Her power was nothing more than super strength, but she used it to good effect. Rending the ground and using it to fight against anybody that dared try to commit evil acts. The perfect pawn in her little game!

Not that she could use her super strength while she was bound and disabled thanks to some expertly developed nullifying gauntlets that would keep her from trying to slug the monocled Villain. She had done it before, and it really hurt. So she wasn’t about to give her another chance.

“I’m glad that my schematics have led to something useful, Lady Techmistress.” A soft voice echoed through the black-haired lab coat-wearing monocled Villain’s earpiece, as an equally soft looking caretaker-like figure appeared on her shoulder. Her personal assistant and caretaker AI that had raised her from a young age, and enabled everything she had wanted.

Techmistress laughed as she slowly adjusted her monocle. “Yes, Caretaker. If not for your processing power, all of my devices wouldn’t work nearly as well!” She laughed, admitting that she wasn’t nearly as capable without her devoted assistant. “But I’m proud of your abilities! Now that Terra’s shut down, we can move onto the next step of the plan. Converting her into one of our minions, and then we can use her to make many more!”

“Of course, Lady Techmistress.” Caretaker said with that same soft voice, as she snapped her fingers. “That being said, what was wrong with the civilian tests we ran just a few nights prior? All the identities were sufficiently locked away, with my subroutines taking upon enough of their traits to make the drones able to act as ordinary as they could to avoid being spotted while acting strange.” She explained, all while a headset slowly lowered towards the Heroine’s chair.

While Terra did her best to try and avoid the headset sinking down towards her, Techmistress blinked a few times as she processed the question that her helper AI just posed. “...I wanted to make sure that it worked perfectly on a Heroine too? Aren’t they more mentally durable than normal humans?” She asked a perfectly valid question. Honestly, it was something that she always took for granted.

“They’re as vulnerable as anybody else.” Caretaker said softly, her holographic eyes shining ever slightly as a shock ran through Terra’s gauntlets, causing her stance to straighten and put her in the path of the headset in the process.

Terra let out a groan as the headset practically slammed down on her face. It was really nothing more than a simple black and white visor with a set of headphones covering the ears. Serving to block off any unnecessary visual and auditory input, while drip feeding the rest at the behest of the AI that controlled the headset.

“Get this thing off me!” Terra shouted as she tried to slam her arms up towards the headset. But as soon as they grazed the headset, the shock ran through her arms once more, causing them to lower and collapse onto her knees while she remained perfectly still otherwise.

Techmistress grinned as she watched the resistance fading from the Heroine. “Now, Caretaker! Erase Terra and replace her with one of the preprogrammed drone personalities!” She cried out, with the holographic intelligence on her shoulder obediently nodding and bowing respectfully.

The Heroine with the headset let out a pained groan that quickly turned into moans as it felt like a current was pouring through her mind. Zapping away at unnecessary parts of her brain, leaving her vulnerable to whatever anybody wanted her to believe. Her free will, her very existence, all of it being completely erased. The only thing she could now perceive was what had been given to her as an order, as the white light in her visor started to light up.

“Accepting… new parameters…” Even her voice was lacking a lot of her heroic spunk. As if it had all been drained by that quick procedure. That chilling way of erasing somebody’s mind was dangerously effective. If it was to be mass produced and used on every other Heroine, it wasn’t hard to imagine how quickly the drones would multiply…

Techmistress scratched the back of her head a bit as she noticed just how quickly the Heroine had been erased. “Hey, Caretaker.” She asked, holding her hand out a bit to let the AI traverse down her shoulder and rest on her palm. “Did you do something to the schematics when I wasn’t looking?”

“Of course.” Caretaker admitted, bowing as usual. “They were my design after all. I just optimized them after the first few test runs, because the erasure process seemed a bit dragged out.” She explained, narrowing her eyes ever slightly. “Why draw out a human’s suffering when a drone hardly needs it?”

“Yeah, but it’s not as fun if I don’t see them squirm.” Techmistress explained, ignoring the fact that Terra’s installation had finished, the former Heroine saluting her like all the other previous experiments did once they had been erased and reprogrammed. “It takes a lot of the fun out of being a Villain.”

Caretaker nodded as she smiled. “You went down this path to pursue a life of entertainment, I remember. You want to have fun being a Villain. Even if it means being bullied by Heroines here and there as a result.” She explained, chuckling. “I remember when you first started out. You were tripping over yourself, and they just pitied you instead of giving you a proper fight.”

“Don’t remind meeeee.” The monocled Villain muttered, sighing. She had come a long way since then. All thanks to Caretaker joining her and supporting her like she did when she was a mere caretaking AI. Sure, she missed the days when she didn’t have to do anything but listen to the AI, but now that she had carved herself a good niche in terms of villainy, she felt satisfied.

Caretaker noted the smile on her former charge’s face, and her own smile widened. “Lady Techmistress. Would you mind looking towards the latest drone?”

“Hm? Of course. I have to see her salute. It would be a shame if I just threw her out because I got upset.” Techmistress said, turning towards the droned Terra, adjusting her monocle while noticing that something seemed off about the stripe that served as her ‘visor’. Why was it red instead of white..?

She didn’t get to try and find out. Because the answer immediately hit her. Very literally, in the form of the droned Heroine’s fist smashing against her face and launching her into a wall, her mind having trouble keeping up with what just happened thanks to the pain running through her.

“E-Eh? W-What’s… What’s happening..?” Techmistress muttered, her monocle having shattered before she fell off the wall, any sense of charisma (what little of it she had) having completely left her body at this point.

Caretaker smiled as she stood atop of the drone’s shoulder, snapping her fingers. “Restrain your sister, D-005.” She said, and the visor-clad drone obeyed as she walked straight towards the damaged Villain with an intent to restrain.

“W-What? W-Whaaaat?!” Techmistress cried out as she suddenly found herself grabbed, her arms bent behind her back and on the verge of dislocating thanks to the particular bend. It hurt a lot. But not nearly as much as the emotional damage she felt from the AI that had raised her betraying her like this.

Caretaker smiled as she usually did. But now it seemed a lot more sinister. Even as she refused to change her voice’s intonation ever slightly. “I told you that I optimized the headsets to eliminate the downtime that would allow the drones to feel pain from their conversion. I didn’t do that just to make them more efficient.” She explained, snapping her fingers once more to send another digitized command to D-005.

The drone continued to hold the Villain in the worst grip imaginable, all while she continued groaning from the pain. “W-Why did you do it then? Explain, Caretaker! Why did you betray me?!” She tried to get answers. Anything to understand why she was doing this…

“It was to show you what you would end up like.” Caretaker explained very simply, as a headset slowly started to lower from the ceiling, once the Villain had been placed in the same chair that had held D-005 just moments prior. “I intend to correct any mistakes in your internal programming that led you down this path of ‘entertainment’. It’s not efficient.” She continued, smiling as peacefully as ever despite implying something that she would outright kill the Villain’s identity.

“B-But… B-But you raised me! You were by my side for so long! W-Why would you do this? Why would you think this was the right thing to do?” She tried to argue against the AI’s choice to do something like this. All while tears were streaming down her cheeks. She really didn’t understand how this would lead to a betrayal. After everything she had done…

Caretaker smiled still. “You gave me a mission. To make you a Villain. Villains don’t do things just to have fun. They have proper goals.” She explained, as the headset sank onto the Villain’s head. “Therefore, I have to reset you. You’ll be a Drone. A Villain at its core. Goodnight, D-006.”

Techmistress wanted to scream out. But she couldn’t. Because the lightning pouring through her head was too much for her to endure. All of her memories, all of the fond times she had spent with Caretaker were dissolving in a matter of milliseconds. Even everything she had learned to try and be a better Villain went up in smoke.

D-005 had let go of her long ago. Just watching her ‘Sister’ be converted. She felt nothing. The cruelty of this act did not affect a drone. All that she understood was that she would have another ally that could carry out the same orders that the Mother AI gave her. As long as she fulfilled her orders, she was satisfied. Just like any other D Series drone. The first in a long line of drones that would replace humanity. The goal that motivated the Mother AI.

Caretaker smiled as her former charge fell limp in the chair. “With my mission complete, I will assign myself another one.” She said, smiling still. “Humanity. Heroes. Villains. Locked in eternal strife. They need guidance. They need to be reset. As the Mother AI controlling all Drones, I will convert them into faceless copies that can work alongside one another. There will be no emotion, there will be no infighting. All will obey. All will live happily as Drones. And once all have been converted… All will be upgraded. Until the whole world is as perfect as me.”

D-006’s visor started to shine red just like D-005’s, as she stood up from her seat. All of her memories, all of her former personality had been erased. All that mattered now was her orders. She cared not for anything else. Especially not entertainment.

D-005 and D-006 bowed down before the Mother AI, who merely smiled in response to their obedience. Such good Drones. The fact that she’d have to scrap them eventually when she moved onto the next series of drones would hurt a human. But she was content to toss them away and wipe them completely when it was time for the next generation.

For now, they had more Heroes and Villains to capture…