It was the barking that caught Wanda's attention. Not that barking was all that unusual in and of itself, it seemed like half the island had a dog of some kind, it just didn't usually sound quite so... electronic.
"Oh, that's cute," she said, only slightly incredulous as she spotted the source of the small commotion. "What did you call it?"
"Ric," Bridge replied, giving Wanda a smile. Or sharing with her the smile he had for Ric's arrival. "That's his name. But it also stands for robotic interactive canine. Do you like dogs?" he asked, Ric's display already refocusing on Wanda. "He won't bite. Not if you're not doing evil."
"Well, I tend to keep my evil doings to a minimum, so I think I'm good," Wanda chuckled, crouching down to get a better look at the thing. "And I don't dislike dogs," she said honestly, trying to figure out if a robot really counted as one. "Did you make him or something?"
"No, but Boom and I did upgrade him back home." While Bridge spoke, Ric's display lights changed patterns and he moved closer to Wanda, ball still in his mouth and tail wagging. "He was really run down and starting to get buggy. Most of his parts weren't even made anymore, so Cruger was going to..."
Bridge trailed off, glancing worriedly at Ric and then up to Wanda before drawing a line across his own throat with his finger and jerking his thumb over his shoulder. He'd just hurt Ric's feelings if he mentioned his potential demise out loud.
"Ooh," Wanda gave a wince as she reached out to... well, pet was probably the wrong word to use here. Investigate the thing, maybe. "Poor little guy, just needed a little attention, is all. What can he all do?"
Judging from the ball in its mouth, she figured 'fetch' was probably somewhere on the list.
"Well, everything a dog does. Except eat and shed and get fleas," Bridge explained. "But with his upgrade he got a new weapons system, new tracking software, improved surveillance equipment, a refrigerator and a CD/DVD player." Bridge grinned. "It's pretty sweet."
"I'll say." Now that was interesting. It was the sort of pet Madison would have built for himself back home, really. Refrigerator and all. It seemed a little pointless to Wanda, but she kept that to herself.
"Howdy there, Ric," she said, voice laced with amusement as she patted it on the nose.
Ric barked in response and wagged his tail. "He loves attention," Bridge remarked, kind of stating the obvious. "We didn't always have all the time in the world for him, what with classes and fighting crime and saving the world. But with the upgrade he could come on the job with us. And then we'd play fetch after."
"It did spread my time as editor of the academy newspaper kind of thin," Bridge admitted. "But you can get a lot of things done during the day if you put your mind to it."
"In my experience, it's other people who tend to get in the way of getting a whole heck of a lot done," she said wryly. "But I suppose that's all part and parcel of doing your world saving with a team, hmm?"
He nodded, his grin growing a little chagrined at the memories. "Yeah, we kind of had a lot of that, too. It's kind of hard to teach teamwork, especially when everybody thinks that they can do something better than everybody else."
"Truer words," Wanda said firmly, smiling faintly as she recalled the constant fights (both verbal and otherwise) that had plagued Alpha Flight's early days. Not to mention the fact that she herself had been the instigator in an awful lot of them.
"My team back home, we never really had much of a sense of unity until we were down to just three members."
"We started out with three members," Bridge said, tilting his head to the side in a thoughtful gesture. "But I think one of the big reasons we all got along was that Syd and I let Sky think he was the boss."
Wanda laughed at that, tossing her head back. "See, we were all too stubborn to play nice like that. Your little gang there sounds a hell of a lot more well-adjusted."
"...Not really," he admitted with a soft laugh. "I think we were all just too scared of being alone again. It's hard growing up different, and when you find people who are different like you, you just kind of hold on."
"Oh, that's cute," she said, only slightly incredulous as she spotted the source of the small commotion. "What did you call it?"
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Bridge trailed off, glancing worriedly at Ric and then up to Wanda before drawing a line across his own throat with his finger and jerking his thumb over his shoulder. He'd just hurt Ric's feelings if he mentioned his potential demise out loud.
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Judging from the ball in its mouth, she figured 'fetch' was probably somewhere on the list.
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"Howdy there, Ric," she said, voice laced with amusement as she patted it on the nose.
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"Fighting crime, saving the world, and fetch," she said, raising an eyebrow in interest. "It's a wonder you got anything done at all."
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"My team back home, we never really had much of a sense of unity until we were down to just three members."
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