Chapter 10: Geek, Not Nerd
AN: More Weiss and Yang antics. The first step to having Bob fully operational again is completed. Everyone settles down to pancakes and a cheesy action flick. This also signals the end of spending 3-4 chapters to cover a 24 hour time period. Things will start moving along faster, I promise. I'll still be making sure to fill in plenty of my own story in between 'official' chapters (as official as they can be with the OC having replaced Blake), but it won't take forever to return to familiar plot points.
(Perspective: K)
"You do realize you're in school, right? Maybe you should be doing, oh I don't know, studying? Especially considering we all missed the first day of algebra." Weiss' scolding was very quickly making itself a habit. At least we're not fighting this time.
"Pfft. Algebra? Give me a break. My dad taught me algebra when I was five." Kassidy didn't bother to look up from her desk. She reached over to drain another glass of milk before continuing to dissect her scroll. Ah, computers. Finally back in my groove.
"Can someone remind me again why you need to drink three and a half gallons of milk?" Ruby was busy servicing her weapon, which had apparently been given the name of Crescent Rose.
"Her metabolism is off the charts and can get even crazier when it needs to, but her body still needs the materials and energy required to repair itself." Bob was squawking away from his current seat near a power outlet. "Fortunately, the vast majority of the damage she suffered was taken by her skeletal system. Bones are relatively easy organs to replace. Mostly all you need is calcium. Which milk happens to possess in abundant quantities."
"Would you tell your demented computer to keep it down? Unlike some of us, I actually feel a need to do well in my classes."
"Oh lighten up snow angel." Yang called from her perch on the upper bed, causing Weiss to turn around and glare, barely suppressing an eye twitch. The brawler made no effort to look away from her video game. "Not all of us feel a need to do the classwork a month in advance." Suddenly putting the scroll down, Kassidy's partner regarded her from the lofty position. "What're ya workin' on K?"
"Figuring out the difference between technologies." A small huff of satisfaction signaled that she managed to separate the circuit board from the rest of the unit.
"And why would you need to do something like that? I mean, sure, your robot buddy –"
"Once again, the name's Bob."
" – Bob's neat and all, but the scroll really is enough for whatever you need."
Leaning back in her seat and wincing at the needles of pain shooting through her torso, Kassidy regarded her partner. "Partly to satisfy my own curiosity. I like tinkering. Computers specifically. It's a hobby that, other than Bob, I haven't really had a chance to mess around with." I wonder how many hormones I have left. The pain's already starting to come back, and the fact that half my brain got turned into jelly is a good indication that once my pain suppressors run out I'm going to need to turn my nerves off if I don't want to be in pure agony. Shaking her head, she leaned back in and got back to work.
"Nerd."
Her head raised back up. Turning around to face her partner, Kass had a look of annoyance on. "Excuse me?"
"Neeeeeeerd." Yang flopped back down and went back to her video game.
"I am not a nerd. I am a geek. Big difference."
"Sure there is," the brawler called back down from her reclined position. Kassidy was sure she could hear Ruby snickering from the other side of the room.
"Geeks are far more competent than your typical nerd. Not to mention way cooler." She was about to turn back to the brutalized holographic cell phone device when someone knocked on their door. Yang sprang from her bed to answer it, finding the entirety of JNPR on the other side. They seemed incredibly somber.
"Oh – Yang. I'm glad to see you're doing alright. Mostly." Jaune's words seemed to stumble over themselves. "Class just got out. We're sorry about what happened to Kassidy."
Yang shrugged in response. "Eh, it's alright. She didn't really know what she was doing. Hormones are a lot of fun, you know?" The four teenagers outside their room only appeared mortified by the answer. "Uh… what's the matter guys?"
It was Pyrrha who stammered an answer back. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize you would be so nonchalant about the death of your partner. The way her skull caved in…" The words trailed off.
"Is it just me, or is team JNPR of the opinion that you actually perished in that little scruff you had with Yang a few hours ago?" Bob spoke back up, and the four teens had a look of shock on their faces. Kassidy got up from her seat and got to the door. Four deathly pale faces greeted her. They all reacted as though they were looking at a ghost.
"What, you're that eager to get rid of me?" She raised a hand to quell the stammering apologies that suddenly erupted. "Relax, I've had worse. Well, only one worse really, and it wasn't that much worse, but still. So what brings you to our neck of the woods?"
Nora spoke up. "I finally convinced Ren to make us pancakes for dinner! We were wondering if you guys wanted pancakes too seeing as how you probably died, but you didn't die, so yay! It'd probably still nice to make the offer though, so do you guys want pancakes?"
"Alright, I can't hold it any longer." Jaune was blurting out his lack of understanding. "How are you not dead? Like, really dead? Don't get me wrong, it's great that you're not, but uh. Your skull got crushed."
"Yeah, I've been meaning to ask that myself." Weiss finally tore herself away from her studies to participate in the conversation. "Head wounds like that are normally incredibly fatal."
"Better biology." Weiss crossed her arms and glared at Kassidy. Alright, apparently they aren't buying it. And the last thing I need is to get into a fight with seven superpowered teenagers. "I have an engorged spinal cord. Nearly three times as many nerve cells as a normal person. Enough for it to function as its own sentience. I've got two brains."
"But I heard your spine snap. That still doesn't make any sense." Jaune was still confused.
"It snapped, but didn't break. It did its job." Speaking of which, it's starting to hurt again. Shouldn't be standing for too long. "I'm gonna go take a seat. Don't want to put too much stress on my bones while they're still healing."
"Fun fact: having two brains also has the side effect of giving her an IQ of 350." Bob was all too pleased to let that bit of info slip. More than one pair of eyes went wide at that.
"Well then," Ren said, composing himself. "Our team decided it would be wise if we spent an evening together. And yes, I did agree to make pancakes for dinner. Would any of you like to make a request?"
"How did Nora manage to talk you into making pancakes this late in the day?" Ruby was inquisitive as she thought about her order. "I would like strawberries, if that's not too much to ask."
"She's made the request at stranger times." Taking a notepad out of his uniform pocket, Ren jotted down the order. "How about you three?"
"I'll take chocolate chip, thanks." Yang was in the middle of clearing out a pile of junk that had found its way in the middle of the floor. Not even twenty four hours in and there's already a mess to clean up. "If you guys are joining us, come on in and make yourselves comfortable. I'll see if I can't find more chairs."
Weiss groaned and pinched her nose. "I am not going to be getting any studying done, am I?" Giving up, she organized her notes before putting them away. "I'll take blueberries, thank you very much."
"Relax Weiss. I'll make sure we trade notes at some point." Kassidy had just sat back down to her dissection. "I'll have banana. And no syrup." Looking up, she found a raised eyebrow. "I don't like sugar. Bananas and tomatoes are about as sweet as I would get."
"What?! How do you not like sugar?" Ruby jumped up from servicing her weapon in a manic state. Nora quickly joined her. "Sugar is so good! How can anyone not like sugar?" She stood still long enough to think for a moment. "And won't your pancakes be horribly dry?"
"You're forgetting the three and a half gallons of milk I need to be drinking so I can rebuild my skeleton. The pancakes being dry won't be an issue. And my body needs nutrients, not empty calories. It's capable enough of generating empty calories when it needs to."
"Yeah, tell me about it." Yang had just returned with four chairs, the no longer swollen but still bruised half of her face suddenly becoming a lot more prominent. Kass winced. "Oh, let it go already K. We're cool."
"Alright, I think I have everything I need. Making thirty six pancakes will take a while, and I have some matters to attend to before I start. Until next time." Offering a bow, Ren left the room. JNP took the seats that the brawler had moved in. Six teenagers were conversing while Kassidy continued prying at the electronics.
Hmm, interesting. These circuits aren't made out of silicon. Or any semiconductor, for that matter. That would explain why these transistors are incredibly primitive – they're not even microscopic. Small, yes, but not microscopic. How are they even… "Oh. That… actually explains quite a lot, Bob."
"You busy being a nerd over there, K?" Yang teased from the conversation.
"First off, I've already told you that it's geek, not nerd. Second off, yes I am. I do believe I've found why my computer hasn't been able to connect to any of your systems." Almost immediately, she had the center of conversation. After taking a few more observations, she leaned back and explained herself. "Basically, you guys are cheating. You don't even have proper semiconductors. The electronics are hilariously outdated for an otherwise technologically competent society."
A 'hmph' sounded from Weiss as she crossed her arms. "It's called dust. Why would we need to make things too complicated with our electronics?"
"Because it's holding you back. Seriously, you aren't even using silicon wafers. This dust compound is doing all the work for you guys, and sure it's easier but it's also a lot slower. Once I get Bob in your systems… oh ho, man. Dude, the horrible things we'll be able to do." Kass chuckled to herself as she turned to the AI.
"Are we talking 'crack their best encryption in less than a second'? Honestly, I hope not. Ignoring this little bit of impossibility that has to do with conflicting computing systems, I've been looking forward to a real challenge for a change."
"I'm afraid you're gonna need to settle for disappointment then. I'll be shocked if it takes you longer than a millisecond."
"So, how long do we have before you know all our darkest secrets? And our bank account information?" Jaune was nervous for some reason. Everyone else giggled at him.
Kassidy shrugged. "Depends on how long it takes me to build a conversion module. Probably a couple weeks. Now if you'll excuse me, I should probably try reassembling this little holographic doohickey."
Bob piped up from his corner in the room. "If it turns out you broke that, I am NOT helping you get a new one."
"Well aren't we the jealous one. You're acting like I've never worked with electronics before." As if to prove her point, Kass expertly reassembled the scroll in no time flat, triumphantly turning it back on.
"You done playing with your scroll K?" Her partner bounded up behind her.
"Yeah, just fini – WOAH!" She didn't have much time to react as Yang started dragging her chair to everyone else.
"I told ya, we're working on improving your mood some." More giggles could be heard. Kassidy pouted some. Whether to protest her forced inclusion in this social interaction, or to spite Yang, she hadn't decided yet.
"So Kassidy." Pyrrha decided to kick things off. "You're obviously quite good with your rifle. Did you build it yourself?"
Kass scoffed. "I wish. It nearly took me a year just to learn how to make ammunition that didn't misfire on me. Besides, I couldn't build a rifle this good anyway."
"You mean a rifle that old?" Nora wrinkled her nose. "It looks like something my grandpa would use! When he wasn't using a hammer, of course."
"Hey, I will not have you disrespecting a classic piece of American engineering! This is the M1 Garand, and it was the rifle that almost singlehandedly won World War Two."
"Uhh, American? World War Two?" Weiss was confused. Oh yeah, right. Guess it's time to spill the beans.
"Remember when you dismissed Ruby's 'crackpot conspiracy theory' about me being an alien?" A nervous nod. "It wasn't a crackpot conspiracy theory. Surprise." Deciding to steer the conversation away from that particular topic quickly, she continued with her gun. "But yeah, this was my great-great-grandfather's rifle in the war. Heh, ninety two years old and still the greatest firearm ever built if you ask me."
"Actually." Bob always had his opinion in this argument. "There were far more factors into the results of WWII than just one model of rifle. And the German Kar98k seemed to have at minimum an equivalent field performance and reliability as the Garand."
"Yeah, but the Germans lost the war, so it couldn't have been too good a gun." Snickers filled the room. "Ah, but enough about bad times on a bad planet. How about yourself? You seemed to have gone for the tried and true method of firearms rather than any of this transforming bollocks."
"Well, uh, funny you should mention that."
"Seriously? Can nothing be simple around here?"
"Nope, only our electronics. We don't like being held back." Damnit Weiss. And you know that smug grin isn't helping your case any, right?
An animated half hour discussion on weaponry later, only three things had made themselves clear to Kassidy. Firstly, these people don't like keeping anything simple. Secondly, I'm pretty sure they don't have any actual gunpowder. Stupid dust. Thirdly, the kitchenette can't be too far away. Those pancakes are smelling really good. Right on cue, a knock sounded on the door. Admitting Ren with a tray of pancakes, everyone was impressed with the results. Smelled good, certainly looked good.
Ruby stopped herself from grabbing her pancakes to ask a question. "Does anyone have any ideas for entertainment? I think it might be hard to keep talking while we're eating pancakes."
"How about a movie? Been a while since I've seen a good action flick." Yang piped up from digging into her flapjacks.
"If I recall, we did in fact bring a projector with us. And I believe hard drive seven has the data storage on culture? We could probably find movies there." Bob apparently didn't mind that he wasn't eating.
"Oh yeah, right." Eyes went on Kassidy as she made her way over to her backpack, quickly digging out an ugly white box with a glass hole on one end, and a smaller black box with a cable sticking out. "These are some of the things from my home. Mind if I try finding something good?"
"Sure thing, Kass." Jaune trying to talk around a mouthful of pancakes got everyone snickering.
"Alright, hmm. Extract the data, and let's see what we have here." Plugging the hard drive into Bob, she started sifting through the information. "We have sci-fi. Star Wars… we're gonna need more time for that. Star Trek, same deal. Oh, I forgot even packing this." Everyone was confused by her sudden snickering. "Spaceballs. Probably not appropriate given the setting."
"Why not?" Ruby was whining again.
"You're definitely too young, starting things off. Okay, how do you guys like superhero movies?" A chorus of agreement prompted her to keep looking. "Got some of the older ones, back when they were still good. Well, not old-old, but still twenty to twenty five years or so. Iron Man, Captain America, Thor. Heh, Marvel was always better than DC. Oh boy!" Everyone was suddenly more confused by the outburst of gut splitting laughter that got very painful very quickly. Soon Yang had to pick her up from doubling over on the floor.
"You okay partner? What's so funny about this 'Deadpool' guy anyway?"
"Oh man, that's definitely not appropriate for here. That's something I need to watch on my own. Thanks for the hand up." Brushing herself off and still clutching her mostly nonexistent ribs, Kassidy brought back up the movies. "Hmm, let's just skip Cap for later. Which do you guys want, robot suits or a hammer throwing lightning god?"
Nora was the only one voting for Thor. After pouting for a bit, she got around to freaking inhaling her pancakes. Plugging the projector in, Kass was about to walk over and set everything up when pain started shooting through her body. "Uh, okay, this might not be good."
"What's wrong?" Ruby was over in a flash and had a look of concern. "You've been taking it too hard, haven't you?"
"Pretty sure that's not possible; I've been sitting on my butt all afternoon. I think I might be running out of pain suppressants though." Taking a seat on her bed, Kassidy killed off the third gallon of milk and asked Weiss for the half gallon while taking a bite of her pancakes. Holy shit this stuff is good. "Hey Ruby, remember back in that little interrogation room we were at a couple nights ago? When I was zoned out when you came in?"
"Yeah. Oh, you're going to need to do that again?"
"More than likely. So actually, if you guys don't mind me asking for my bed back, I'll probably need to crash at some point."
Everyone switched places accordingly, and they sat down to the movie. Bob assured her that everything would be taken care of. The pain never died down, and after she was finished with food and drink it was almost excruciating. Well, this is going to be the closest I'll get to sleep tonight. Kassidy shut the world out from around her, and focused really hard on fighting the pain back. It was going to be a long night.