Classes!
Add - Mastermind
Lusa - Lunatic Psyker
Add's nimble fingers flew over his broken Dynamo, taking it apart. He discarded the unfixable case, dropping it to the side of his workspace as he leaned over the bared wiring of the drone. The other five Dynamos hovered around him, waiting for a command.
Add sucked in his breath as his gaze roved over the dismantled weapon. The diamond-shaped drone had taken a direct hit from a Glitter's weapon, and the force of the blow had completely split the Mastermind chip, torn apart vital wiring, and also put a hairline crack in the El shard that powered the drone. With all the damage, it was a wonder that Add had gotten out of the fight alive.
"One more useless piece of junk, keke," the white-haired scientist muttered. In a fit of temper, he snatched up the cracked case and crushed it in his fist. Then he yelped and dropped the shattered drone covering. Pain was shooting across his palm, and splotches of red blood were beginning to show up on his white glove.
Hissing, Add drew off the offending glove. Said glove got dropped to the floor as Add cradled his left hand, watching blood well up in the cuts made by the sharp edges of the broken Dynamo's case. Three of his working Dynamos flew away from him, heading for the medical kit that Add kept in his lab.
There was a knock at the door. Add didn't deign to call out and answer, instead glaring at both his hand and the broken Dynamo. Just great. Two things to fix.
The three Dynamos returned, awkwardly carrying the medical kit between them. Add waited as they dropped it on his worktable, then opened the lid and pulled out a healing salve.
The knocking got more insistent, but Add still ignored it, using his teeth and sole working hand to clean and bandage his injuries. After he had secured it in place, he sent the three Dynamos to take the medicine kit back to its spot and resumed his surveying of the broken Dynamo.
I can't repair this.
The knocking stopped as Add ripped the damaged Mastermind chip out of the weapon, violently disconnecting wires and chucking the chip across the room in a rare fit of temper. It passed through a couple of holographic screens and hit the wall with an ominous cracking sound.
"It was ruined anyways," Add muttered, turning back to the weapon in front of him. He raised his gloved hand, ready to command the rest of the Dynamo to completely dismantle their brother, when a loud crunching sound from the edge of his lab startled him.
Add whirled around, coat flying out behind him, searching for the source of the disturbance. "Lusa?"
The Lunatic Psyker was standing in front of the open door. His magenta eyes took in Add's appearance, including the way he held his left hand a bit closer to his body than usual. "What happened?"
Add ignored the question. "How did you get past the door? That lock was designed to keep people like you out!"
"Lock? Oho, ya mean this thing?" Lusa asked with a smirk holding up a rectangular box that had Add's symbol on it. Wires dangled pathetically out of the back, and the Dynamo scanner that was the unlock mechanism was practically detached. It was only hanging on by the merest thread of metal.
Add's voice was small as he said, "Oh." Only Lusa would rip the lock out of a metal door.
Lusa tilted his head to the side and stepped forward. "Hey, what's wrong with ya? You're not acting like yourself."
Add growled and raised his uninjured hand, flicking it. Three movements later, Lusa was lying on his back a couple meters away from Add. Add's five working Dynamos whisked back to their positions at Add's back, the crackling purple energy dying down around them.
"Is that more like me?" the Mastermind shot at the Lunatic Psyker, turning back to his work. Lusa's own Dynamos helped him up, one of them hooking itself under his arm to drag him off the floor.
"Kehehehehe," he laughed. "So the prissy guy still has some bite to his bark, eh?" He tensed his muscles, waiting for the inevitable blast of energy or attacking drone, but nothing came his way.
Nonplussed, Lusa watched Add for a couple moments. Then his eyes narrowed, and he recounted the Dynamos that were hovering around the working Mastermind.
"Hey, where's your other Dynamo?" he asked impulsively. "I know you've got six."
Add, who didn't deign to respond, couldn't entirely hide his reaction to Lusa's question as his five working Dynamos shuddered agitatedly around him. Lusa watched them, knowing that they were connected to Add's thoughts and emotions.
He stepped forward, his own Dynamos hovering at his shoulders, tentatively trying to get a glimpse of what Add was working on.
Add was savagely ripping apart one of his Dynamos. Lusa noticed the bloodstained glove on the floor, Add's bandaged, bare hand, the shattered Dynamo covering, and the broken Dynamo on the table. His quick mind fitted them together in a couple seconds, and he put his own gloved hand on Add's thin shoulder. "Guess that Glitter was stronger than you thought, neh?"
"Kek, don't touch me," Add spat, trying and failing to throw off Lusa's hand. The Lunatic Psyker laughed softly at his counterpart's weak efforts.
"Ya really do depend on your drones for strength, don't ya?" he mocked Add.
"Kkkkkkkkh." The noise came from Add, a close approximation of a cat's angry snarl. His right eye began to glow, and the scar on his face began to give off a thin filament of purple energy. His Dynamos started darting around, a clear sign of Add's anger.
Lusa took his hand off Add's shoulder, only to step forward and wrap restraining arms around the Mastermind instead, pinning him. Add froze inside Lusa's none-too-gentle arms.
"Don't ya dare," Lusa growled into Add's ear, "don't ya dare attack me with dynamo configuration mode, keke. You can't support it with only five Dynamos, you'll end up electrocuting yourself." Lusa could probably go into awakening with only five working Dynamos, but his Nasod armor had been perfected over the course of three long years. Add had only spent six months, tops, working on his.
Add was still tense in Lusa's arms. His hands shook, the bandaged one still clenched around a protruding wire. He hated the way that Lusa was restraining him so effectively, hated that he wasn't completely adverse to it.
He heard Lusa mutter a command to one of his own Dynamos. The angular machine flared out of line and nudged the silver wire in Add's hand. After a couple moments, Add opened his fist and let the electrical conductor drop. His Dynamos stopped the frenzied activity that they had sustained while their master's emotions had been running high. They flocked to hover in a straight line above Add's head, floating motionless.
Add lowered his head, and his hair brushed Lusa's eye. He felt the Lunatic Psyker shake his head irritably, and then he was still, studying the dismantled Dynamo.
Add knew that his Dynamos had a radically different design from Lusa's Dynamos. They were still the same in principal, though - a sextuplet of semi-intelligent weapons – and Add knew that Lusa could see the problems in the drone.
"Where's the power source?" Lusa asked, speaking into Add's ear. One of Add's Dynamos moved tentatively forward, shifting wires out of the way to reveal the slightly cracked El shard.
Lusa nodded, then there was another beat of silence before he spoke again. "An' that chip – what did you call the code -"
"Mastermind," Add said softly. "The Mastermind chip was cracked." He glanced over at the wall, and felt Lusa doing the same.
"Well, that's unfortunate," Lusa muttered. "D'ya need help?"
Add shook his head, tickling Lusa with his ponytail again. This time, Lusa's discomfort didn't seem to be quite so strong.
Lusa's arms were still tight around Add, and it was starting to get annoying. His desire to have Lusa let go of him communicated itself to his Dynamos, and they started poking at Lusa's sides, trying to wriggle their way between Lusa and their master.
"Let go of me," Add said quietly when Lusa showed no signs of releasing him. Lusa complied, withdrawing his arms and stepping away from Add a bit. The Dynamos linked together to push Lusa a bit farther away, then flocked back to Add and were still.
Add waved his bandaged hand at Lusa dismissively. "Get out of my lab," he said in the same quiet tone. He dropped his head, staring fixedly at the broken Dynamo.
Lusa didn't leave. Add commanded two of his Dynamos to flare out of line and fly at Lusa's face, which made the black-clad man take a step back.
"Alright, I'm going!" Lusa said defensively. He turned, muttering something under his breath.
Add heard the mutter, but declined to respond to it, staring at the broken Dynamo. Unbidden, his gaze grew watery, and he angrily blinked the tears away. He would not cry over a metal piece of junk.
He heard Lusa's retreating footsteps, and raised his head the barest bit. Good. He had no clue how he shared a background with that brutish idiot; it seemed impossible that they had the same experiences.
Add shook away memories of slavery that rose, unwanted, to his mind. He shivered as he mentally commanded two of his Dynamos to bring him a spare Mastermind chip. They flew away, and Add carefully started nudging the wires of the broken Dynamo back into place. He didn't notice that Lusa's footsteps had stopped shy of the door, instead cursing the fact that his dominant hand had been the one injured.
As he was reconnecting the power wire to the El shard, his injured hand trembled. The El shard, already cracked from the Glitter's blow, lost it completely and shattered.
Add froze, knowing that he didn't have any more suitable El shards, then a dangerous light appeared in his eyes. "Kekekekekeke!"
Heavy footsteps neared him, getting more hesitant the closer they got, and Add immediately realized that Lusa hadn't actually left. His magenta eyes narrowed even more and the two Dynamos that were carrying the spare Mastermind chip dropped the program and raced back to him. All five Dynamos responded to his angry thoughts, zooming towards the Lunatic Psyker and forcing him to stop in his tracks.
The footsteps stopped as Add directed the Dynamos into a blocking formation. He looked over his shoulder slightly, just enough to see Lusa sidestep in an attempt to get around the Dynamos. Add's weapons moved in front of Lusa, still stopping him from going to their master.
Lusa growled, and drew back a fist to hit the five Dynamos. The punch didn't do much, since Add himself did worse to the drones when he lost matches against the Elbrat and his friends.
"Add, let me through," Lusa said. His voice was annoyed, but there was another emotion in there. Concern? It almost scared Add.
"I told you to get out, Lusa," Add said in a low voice.
"Ya think I care about what ya want?" Lusa said with a crazed half-laugh. He cracked his knuckles, and his angular Dynamos spread out into a fighting position at the sound. "Let me through before your working Dynamos get broken, too. An' don't forget, I might be able to help you, keke."
The Dynamos obstructing Lusa's path trembled as Add's resolve wavered. Maybe Lusa had El shards. Their weapons were powered by the same force, right?
Long moments passed as Lusa waited. Finally, the diamond-shaped Dynamos broke formation, whirling back to Add and hovering protectively around him. Add heard Lusa stepping forward, walking quickly to stand behind him.
The Lunatic Psyker's muscled chest pressed against Add's ribs as he leaned forward. Add's Dynamos scattered, as not to get crushed by Lusa's body. The metal plate on Lusa's shoulder bit into Add's skin. Much to his embarrassment, his Dynamos started humming in excitement as they lined up to the side, and Add silenced them with an annoyed thought as he turned his gaze to the broken weapon.
"So, do you have any El shards?" Add asked. A faint note of anger was still in his tone, but his temper had cooled quickly. Besides, as much as it pained Add to admit it, he needed Lusa's help.
Lusa pursed his lips, surveying the different Dynamo. "I do, but none that'd work for you. I cut the El shards into a different shape for my Dynamo."
Add hissed. "That's great, keke. Get out."
"Because that worked so well the last time," Lusa replied sarcastically, making no move to remove himself. "Ya know, I can help you collect El shards, if ya want."
Add was about to make a biting comment, but the last part of Lusa's statement hit him. "You would... help me? Why?"
He felt Lusa's shoulders move in a shrug. "Oh, maybe because it's amusing. Maybe because I'm bored. Or maybe I just don't want ya to die while searching by yourself. But actually, ya know, it's a bad idea. Forget it." The Lunatic Psyker backed away, turning to leave. Add's side suddenly felt very cold where Lusa's warmth had been.
He... doesn't want me to die? Did he really mean that? Lusa always seemed so indifferent to everything.
"Wait," Add said before he could stop himself. He heard the Lunatic Psyker's steps pause.
"Mmmmh?"
Add's working Dynamos flared out around him as he turned. Lusa was looking over his shoulder, one of his hovering Dynamos partially obscuring his face.
"I would... appreciate your help." Add had to spit out the last three words, hating the fact that he had to ask for assistance. "With only five Dynamos, it's not reasonable for me to search for El shards alone."
Lusa turned around fully. The two scientists stared each other down – one with spiky hair and an intense glare, the other dressed in white and stubbornly meeting his counterpart's gaze.
Finally, Lusa closed one eye and smiled. "Kek, when do we start?"