[The cover is an homage to the "Spider-Man pointing at Spider-Man"
meme, but with two Lady Lawfuls, one of them clearly an impostor]

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Coherent LL&DD Special
Comics | ADY | AWFUL __ __ "A Lesser Mousetrap"
Presents an |__ |__ & | \ OCTOR | \ EVELOPER copyright 2023
ASHistory Tale: |_/ |_/ by Andrew Burton
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[April 1998 - Chicago, Illinois]

Doctor Developer refused to look up from the computer screen. Instead
he focused on the memory dump in the editor window. He worked through the
almost incomprehensible jumble of characters, translating them from noise
into the workflow that drove the robotic corpse laying on the ground next to
him.
The squid-like robot, a jumble of mechanical tentacles flowing from a
central node shaped like a bullet, lay motionless on the ground. A hole the
size of a fist marred the sleek casing, and provided Doctor Developer access
to the remaining portions of its computer brain. That access was a series of
wires clipped to various leads that led to a port in the back of his
diagnostic system.
Every few minutes he would tap a key and the jumble of letters and
numbers on his screen would change. Each new screen brought him closer to
understanding what the robot's purpose was. Like piecing together a book by
finding pages scattered throughout a library, Doctor Developer was mentally
rebuilding the robot's software one chunk of its active memory at a time.
Normally this would have been exhilarating. Even as one of the
preeminent technological super-villains of his generation it was a rare treat
to examine an autonomous drone created by someone else. He more often got to
partake in the destruction of those drones. Having the ability to study one,
to appreciate the masterwork of a fellow engineer, and glean new insights
from them by proxy of their work, was normally wonderful.
Normally, because normally there wasn't a furious Lady Lawful pacing
around in the background.
Normally she wasn't muttering curses and violent oaths under her breath.
Normally she wasn't strangling someone in pantomime.
Normally she did none of those things.
Too late for his own good, Doctor Developer realized if he was aware of
what she was doing that she didn't normally do, that meant he was looking
away from his computer monitor. If he was looking away there was a chance
Lady Lawful would see him, and if she did...
"Spill, Deedee, what have you found out?" she asked.
Doctor Developer, Deedee when Lady Lawful wasn't in the best mood and
sometimes when she was, took a second for his mind to change gears. When
he'd gotten out of robot logic and back into human English mode, he spoke.
"From what I can tell it's designed to look for Lady Lawful, then capture
Lady Lawful..."
"Why is that such a popular theme?" she interjected.
"...ah, let Lady Lawful escape, and basically repeat," Doctor Developer
finished. He continued before she could interrupt. "To answer that second
question, I think it's not a popular theme, but it, uh, is my theme."
"This is one of your robots?" Lady Lawul's tone shifted dangerously.
"Not my robot, no, but it's my software...some of it," he explained. "I
recognize the reward structure from my simulation software, but the control
systems, the physical hardware, that's someone else."
Lady Lawful threw her hands in the air. "Just great! Somewhere out
there someone's making these robots, and I can't even go out and look for
them because as soon as I do they swarm."
Doctor Developer shrugged. "Well, you can go out, just not Lady
Lawful." The statement satisfied him enough that he went back to the
computer screen.
Lady Lawful spoke very slowly. "But I'm Lady Lawful."
Doctor Developer nodded. "Yes." Lady Lawful pressed her hands into
eyes and let out a frustrated growl, which Doctor Developer took to mean his
explanation wasn't as clear as he thought. "Let me show you. Just...one...
okay, two..." he pecked at the keyboard. "Maybe five..."
"I'm going to get coffee," Lady Lawful said, "I'll be back." With that
she walked out of Deedee's lab.

* * * *

As soon as she stepped back into Deedee's lab, Lady Lawful's fight or
flight instincts kicked in. The squid robot looked like it was floating
above the ground, and that meant grabby tentacles weren't far behind. She
was about to launch a preemptive strike when Doctor Developer cried out.
"It works!" He sounded far too pleased with himself.
"What works?" Lady Lawful asked. She wasn't ready to step back into
Deedee's lab, and opted to hang back in the hallway. If the squidbot got any
ideas, she had some advantage being a few extra steps away from it. "Please
tell me you didn't fix the robot that's trying to grab me."
"Uh, no, I didn't fix it. I just got its basic features working."
Deedee was not looking at her, and instead kept explaining. "It's actually
got a really robust diagnostic protocol. In fact, I think it's using the
Dogooder interface, which made this setup a lot easier."
Dogooder was a simulation program Deedee created. Lady Lawful
remembered a demo he gave, showing how he used it to simulate his schemes,
deathtraps, and the like. A bit disquieting if you weren't acclimated to
Deedee's form of endearing charms. For better or worse, Lady Lawful was.
"What setup?" From her vantage point, Lady Lawful could see Deedee
looking at a computer, but he blocked the screen.
Her question was enough to get his attention. Deedee looked back at
her, and cocked his head. "You can come in."
Lady Lawful pointed at the semi-activated robot. "Not with that
thing...hovering." Without hesitation, Deedee shoved the squidbot away. It
floated across the room, only stopping when the cables connected to Deedee's
computers went taut.
"It's safe." Lady Lawful walked closer to Deedee's setup, which was all
the prompt he needed to continue his explanation. "I've got this setup to
show what it sees." The image on the screen was distorted, but after a
moment Lady Lawful identified herself as a red, blue, and blonde blob in one
of the corners. "Its field of vision is more than a hundred eighty degrees,
which is why it looks odd."
"Yeah, I just got that," Lady Lawful replied.
"So that's just its basic visual layer, but if I overlay its goal
protocol things get cool." Deedee tapped on a few keys, and suddenly
rectangles started to flash on the screen. They disappeared after a second,
except for a red one that outlined her form. "It's good at identifying
objects, but it only cares about Lady Lawful."
Lady Lawful frowned. "And we're back to where I went for coffee."
"Okay, follow me outside." Deedee took Lady Lawful's hand and started
toward the door. She didn't think he was trying to be rude, but when he was
in demo mode Deedee didn't like to leave anything to chance. Too much time
with robots, she thought.
Once they were out of the lab, Deedee pointed to the monitor. From
their distance it was hard to make out details, but she could see enough to
know that they were out of the squidbot's view.
"Go back in, but watch the screen," Deedee said. He pointed at the
monitor, as if there was more than one.
Lady Lawful obliged. She could see some movement on the screen, which
she recognized as her coming from the shadows of the hallway. A square
flashed around her on screen, shifting as she moved. It wasn't until she was
all the way in, properly lit by the lab lights, that the square turned red.
"Right, and now?"
"Come back out." Deedee was taking off his jacket. He offered it to
Lady Lawful. "Keep your hair under the collar, and take your mask off."
Lady Lawful pulled Deedee's coat around her, buttoning it closed, and put her
mask in one of the coat pockets. The collar tugged at her hair a bit, but
she resisted pulling it loose per his instructions.
"Now back in?" she asked.
"Both of us," Deedee answered.
They entered the lab. Again the squidbot's point of view identified two
new potential targets. Unlike her previous entrance the squidbot did not
identify Lady Lawful as being present.
"So," Lady Lawful said thoughtfully, "they're looking for Lady Lawful,
but not plain old Jennifer McKay?" Deedee nodded, smiling ever so slightly.
"That's a start, but how can I take these things down without giving up my
secret identity?"
Deedee's smile disappeared into a pained expression. "I have an idea,
but you're not going to like it."