The factory had a large basement — nobody knew why it had been built that way in the first place — but now it was Thea's lucky break. She picked out a few lightweight, still-serviceable processing machines and welders. The two women hauled the bulky gear onto a cart with Herculean effort and staggered it down into the basement.
Fortunately, both were Western girls and strong enough; at least stronger than the typical Asian women of this world. Despite Felicity's bookish look, she had a surprising amount of muscle and grit. Thea, having trained under Old Malcolm for half a year, had gained some strength too; still, Felicity did most of the heavy lifting — what could Thea say, she was older.
Once everything was installed and tested, the machines still worked. Thea had been reading manuals on fabrication lately; she didn't expect to reach Tony Stark levels of artisan mastery, but for her future Iron suit and the nascent Red Arrow Skateboard, she needed to know the basics at least.
They sealed and camouflaged the basement entrance. From now on, the visible area upstairs would be the Software Department's office, while the hidden room below would be their secret base.
The two women leaned against the wall, panting. Thea felt a new respect for Oliver: the two of them were exhausted to the point of collapse, and she imagined how he would one day do all this alone — his forearms must be the stuff of legends.
Felicity, half-limp with fatigue, sighed, "I'm so tired, Thea. Let's go to a hot spring."
Seriously? Again? The memory of their last outing made Thea nervous, and also, inexplicably, a little fluttery. What was she excited about? She snapped herself out of that corrupt train of thought and firmly refused the decadent suggestion, saying she needed to report back to Moira.
She told Felicity not to slack off either: even if their cover was just for show and they didn't plan to perform miracles, the basic framework had to be built. Recruiting software engineers would be Felicity's job — she was a top hacker, after all; whoever she selected would at least have some skill.
Over the next few days Thea was a whirl of activity, quietly pulling the pieces of equipment she needed out under plausible pretexts. She told Moira the Software Department would need powerful computers; a large fund was approved — and thus the usual off-book accounting began. In the secret base, they installed a powerful server rack.
That thrilled the former hacker-now-homebody. Having something once and losing it makes you appreciate it more. Watching the radiant smile on Felicity's face, Thea wondered if making her do something slightly embarrassing would be out of line. Bad imaginations should take a knee — Thea pulled out a bucket of paint, two brushes, and a sprayer, and told Felicity to each take a wall and clean the basement up.
Thea admitted she might be a bit obsessive. Maybe Oliver wouldn't care if the place stayed filthy for a year, but she couldn't stand it. The secret room's existence had to be kept safe, and only the two of them should have their fingerprints on it. So they painted.
Felicity hadn't expected this. A proud MIT grad reduced to renovation work — the irony was rich. Thea had seen Felicity's apartment; the girl was lazy to the core, only emptying the trash when it overflowed. Without someone to push her, she would have ended up drifting through life.
Though internally mortified, Felicity didn't refuse the painting. To her it was neither here nor there; given Thea — a pampered heiress — rolling up her sleeves to paint, Felicity found she wasn't too delicate to join in. Grudgingly, she changed clothes and helped the lady scrub and repaint the place. She muttered as she brushed, "Move machines, install a door, paint walls! Where's the promised advanced weapon-modifying work? Fraud!"
Thea pretended not to hear. Men and women really did have different tolerances for mess — maybe that's why being a female hero was so hard.
Building a base was full of obstacles. Batman had a cave and never had to paint a wall. After a bout of hard work, the space looked infinitely better. Thea had made Felicity act as a mover, installer, and decorator for two days straight. Finally she couldn't refuse the hot-spring suggestion any longer; with heroic stoicism she agreed to accompany her. The details that followed, which happened below the neck, are left unsaid here, but to borrow a phrase from a master of martial arts fiction: "Excellent, superb — ineffable joy."
A month passed quickly. The Software Department's initial preparations were essentially complete. Thea wished she could keep procrastinating forever; she really didn't care much for bureaucratic department-building. Her skateboard assembly had just begun, and Felicity was already coding a new algorithm for brainwave acquisition.
Moira flatly refused Thea's plea for another month of delay and ordered her to start work immediately.
With the boss's mind made up, the two young women had to set aside their tinkering. Thea assumed the role of department head and assigned Felicity as deputy head. The title sounded impressive, but in reality the group consisted of only three people pulled from the company. The rest either lacked skill or stared at the two women with lecherous eyes and unclear intentions.
Among the three recruits, two were women of average looks and skinny enough to be blown away by a level-six wind. The lone male spoke in a soft voice, and just looking at him suggested low testosterone and maybe a touch of spinal weirdness. Thea thought, if all villains were like this, she could take ten at once.
She gave a short speech about how important the new department was to the corporation, but the empty factory, oil stains in the corners, and windows that rattled when the wind blew made her words sound hollow.
Still, three flakey underlings were better than none. It wasn't Malcolm's army of henchmen, but it was a start. Thea declared, full of ambition, that work would commence!
Her first day as a department head passed in tea and newspaper reading — because frankly, there was nothing to do. Queen Consolidated had been founded on steel smelting and shady dealings; anyone with a face full of scabs could find work here. The company's needs for software were close to zero. Thea wondered if she would be sleeping by day and busy at night forever. Time was precious; half of her five-year plan had already evaporated.
She stumbled out to find Felicity. The situation here and at the company was inverted: at HQ, Felicity slept while Thea worked herself stupid; now Thea had nothing to do, and she couldn't very well practice archery in front of the three hires—if she did, they would probably run away.
Felicity, on the other hand, had no such problem. Her brainwave capture software could be coded at any time; to outsiders it would look like she was doing something impressive even though no one knew exactly what.