Work Text:
Doctor Mindbender huddled over his latest creation, smiling slightly as it continued to hum with activity. The printer behind him began to spit out another sheet of data. He waited a few moments before grabbing the paper and nodded to himself. He didn’t want to brag, but so far everything looked perfect. It was ready for a real world test.
He carefully shut the device down and then sat down at his desk. Everything from his hand scribbled notes to detailed CAD drawings were scattered around. Doctor Mindbender spent a few minutes organizing his paperwork before he settled back into his chair. He needed just a couple of minutes to rest. He always entered a manic mindset when he was in the early developmental stage of a new invention and had gotten very little sleep the last few days. But it all paid off when he was rewarded with a fully functioning device.
Doctor Mindbender picked up the handset of the phone. He dialed the extension to the Commander’s private residence and waited for his semi-fearless leader to answer.
“Yes?” came the raspy voice.
“Commander. Doctor Mindbender here. I am pleased to report that the new device is up and running.”
Cobra Commander sighed sharply and Doctor Mindbender fought to control his temper. The commander never could recognize pure genius. “It really works?” the Commander asked.
“Yes. I have perfect test data,” Doctor Mindbender said. He swallowed before continuing. Cobra Commander was not going to like the next part. “Although, I do need a couple of human subjects to really complete my testing.”
Cobra Commander muttered a few obscenities. “Mindbender we’ve talked about this. The last time we used cobra troopers as your test subjects, I had to deal with Destro ranting and raving about basic workman’s rights. And if that excessive hair growth problem hadn’t cleared itself up, I would have had Xamot and Tomax leading a class action law suit against us.”
Doctor Mindbender shook his head at the image. His previous invention had had a few unfortunate side effects. But this time was different, he was sure of it. “Don’t we have any Joe prisoners in house?”
“No, thanks to Zartan,” Cobra Commander spat out. “His incompetent Dreadnoks were apparently too engrossed in another candy mint/breath mint debate and missed the warning signs that the Joes were coming to rescue their teammates.”
“Damn,” Doctor Mindbender said. “I would have loved to have had one of the Joe women to test this on.”
That seemed to get the Commander’s attention. “What exactly does your new invention do?”
Doctor Mindbender grinned. “It’s a takeoff of the brainwave scanner. However, it implants certain wants and desires into the victim’s subconscious.”
“What kind of desires?”Cobra Commander asked.
“Anything. I designed it with the intention of convincing the Joes they actually wanted to fight for Cobra, but I quickly realized there were other uses for it. You could have some real fun with this device.”
Cobra Commander went quiet, and Doctor Mindbender waited for the man to come to his own conclusions. “Excellent, Doctor Mindbender. I think I do know the perfect test subjects, but I need to come down and witness the test for myself. I will send Destro and the Baroness down immediately.”
Doctor Mindbender hung up the phone with an evil grin on his face. Now all he needed to do was make sure his video equipment was in prime working order.