About 45 minutes later they were ready to go. Carrie and Todd had dug through piles of equipment and old pages of calculations, piecing together a set of devices that hung strapped to a backpack Carrie wore. Todd rode on her shoulder, holding on to the backpack shoulder strap. In front of him, a cell phone had been attached to the strap like a mini computer terminal for the rodent.
"You all set there, Navigator?" Carrie asked looking down at her shoulder.
"I've got the map up and running," he replied and used his paws to adjust the phone. "Just go where I tell you and we should find the remote."
"Roger."
Todd sighed. "This would be so much easier if you would just..."
"...Make you human again?"
Todd nodded.
Carrie chuckled. "Not a chance, hamster-boy. Not at least until we get this mess sorted out. I want some kind of insurance first before I let you be human again."
"Insurance?"
"Yeah, something that will keep you from just turning me into a bug and squashing me when you get the opportunity."
Todd nodded. "Understood. That's… reasonable. Well, let's get moving."
"Roger," Carrie said and headed for the door.
"You worried?" Todd asked.
Carrie smirked. "Why worry? I'm only 'carrying an unlicensed nuclear accelerator' on my back."
"Well, actually, it's not a--"
"It's a joke," she said cutting his lecture off.
She walked by a mirror on the way to the door and paused to look herself over. She chuckled again. "I mean, look at me. Don't I look like some kind of half-assed Ghostbuster?"
Todd looked her over as well. "You kind of do."
Carrie had donned a white lab coat, for fashion's sake, she had said. A flashlight stuck out of one pocket of the coat and a calculator out of the other. A small antenna protruded from the backpack connected to a special receiver device inside of the bag. Wires snaked out of the bag down each of her arms to strange boxy devices with exposed circuits that were strapped to her wrists. A lacrosse stick covered in wires and electronics that she held in her left hand was similarly wired to the bag. And, hanging from the back of the bag were a series of lantern batteries, wired together and taped in a stack.
Todd looked up at her quizzically as a realization hit him. "Hey, that was a Ghostbusters quote you said before, an old one. How did you know about that?"
"Please," Carrie said dismissing his skeptical surprise. "Bill Murray is the shit. I grew up on his stuff."
"Nice," Todd said. "I knew there was a reason that I chose you."
Carrie walked out the lab door and headed into the basement hallway. "What," she said. "A reason besides me looking like a good target for your perverted fantasy machine?"
"Yes, besides that," Todd said, slightly embarrassed. "You looked... well..."
"...vulnerable?"
"...smart," he corrected her. "You looked smart. And, I... I think smart is sexy."
Carrie smiled and almost blushed. "Uh, thanks, I guess. That would almost be romantic if you weren't so socially retarded with how you approached me."
"I'm sorry, Carrie."
"Yeah, yeah..." she said waving a dismissive hand.
"No, really," Todd said seriously, and Carrie stopped walking. "I'm sorry I didn't just walk up to you and talk to you. I was wrong. I was… lonely and frustrated and lost in some kind of sick fantasy. Just… drunk on power. That's no excuse. I know. But, it's true. I should have just talked to you. I think we might have hit it off after all."
Carrie stared off down the hallway. "Maybe," she said. "We certainly do share a similar sexual kinkiness."
"Yeah."
They both paused a moment to picture what might have been.
"Well," Carrie said as she started walking again. "We'll sort out our relationship after we save the world from the doomsday we made. Sound good to you?"
"You bet."
Carrie strode up a flight of stairs, taking them two at a time, and gave a mocking salute to a professorial looking woman walking down past her and said, "Howdy, ma'am."
"Good afternoon, Doctor Jenkins," Todd squeaked from her shoulder. "Nice day for a walk. Isn't it?"
The woman froze in place and watched them go. She heard them both break out laughing as they reached the door to the building.