Key:
"Regular speaking"
"Thinking" - Will also double as telepathic convos
"Comms or automated speech"
Like a giddy school boy, Max zipped around his messy lab. If he could finish up these final touches, then he could take the 'Mark II' out for a test run tonight! Now that he was prepared for the possibility of running into a tree at well over 100 mph, the suit was not only beefed up, but also wired to handle much much more voltage.
At the note of a mechanical hiss, the lab door opened.
"Hey, Max. You-?"
Acting off pure reflex, Max swiped his hand over the desk top, sending everything he was working crashing to the floor.
"Heeeey, Artemis. W-What's up?" He asked awkwardly.
Internally, he couldn't have been more embarrassed. "Why did I do that?! Now I look suspicious, and she'll think I'm weird! Well, she probably already thinks I'm weird… Why am I even hiding this?" His thoughts began to jumble as the blond archer looked at him strangely.
"Are you… ok?" She slowly walked in, almost hesitant to.
"Who, me? Yea, I'm great. Perfect even, some might say splendid. Haha." He offered a thumbs up.
"WHY AM I LIKE THIS?!"
Artemis flicked a single eyebrow up as she looked around the messy area, trinkets and devices scattered about. "Actually, I was talking to Aiva." She joked.
"O-Oh…" Max apparently didn't pick up on that.
"I'm doing well, thank you Artemis." And neither did the AI.
Artemis popped a lopsided smile, "I was kidding, but that's good to hear… Say, what is all this stuff?"
The younger boy walked over and got a clearer look at what his friend was seeing. It was a pile of what looked to be robotic hands next to a whole arm attached to a fake torso.
"Oh! Those are prosthetics! I had a really great idea using this receiver as a way to send the brain's signals to the limb. There's still a bunch of kinks to work out, but I think I'm headed in the right direction." Max picked up a small headband, the very same one that he used for his nanite project.
The blonde archer looked at the prosthetic in awe, "Does it work?" She asked.
The teen smiled and held out the receiver, "Want to try it out?"
She nodded excitedly, this was some major sci-fi corporation shit. Someone in her tax bracket was lucky to see the cool tech that Batman drove around Gotham.
Artemis put the headband on as carefully as she would a crown, "Ok, now what?"
Max walked over to the arm and fiddled with it before responding, "There's a small button on the right side, hold it for a sec and it'll turn on." He made his way to the girls side and simply waited.
"Ooook, what's next?"
"Just think about moving, it's your arm after all."
Artemis adopted a look of minor concentration, it seemed strange to think about moving something that wasn't attached to you. Lo and behold, the arm began to move. "W-Woah! It's working! It's really working!" She said excitedly.
The arm waved at them before it began to wiggle its fingers. Artemis clenched her fist and watched the metallic limb to the same. This was amazing, she thought! Genuinely amazing!
"Do you wanna try picking something up? Don't be scared, I've put it through its paces." Max looked rather proud at how pleased Artemis seemed by his device. They hadn't known each other very long, but impressing her felt like eating warm soup on a cool winter's day. It just made him feel good.
"Hell yea!" Like before, the arm moved with a thought and picked up the nearest object. For this particular run, it was a screwdriver. Artemis noted that while she could see it picking up the tool, she couldn't feel it. The lack of feeling was off putting and she briefly wondered if this is what it felt like to be telekinetic. "This feels weird…"
Having had her fun, Artemis placed the screwdriver down and took off the reciever. A plethora of questions circled her mind, what exactly was wrong with this? Why wasn't it ready? Did he plan to make other things for disabled people?
"You look like you've got a ton of questions, haha!"
"Of course I do! You said that you still had to work out some 'kinks' but it worked great!"
Max smiled, practically glowing at the praise. "Oh stop it, you'll give me an ego… But, jokes aside, there's a few glaring flaws. You probably noticed them, they just weren't very pronounced since it wasn't attached directly to your body."
"And those are?"
"Well, for starters, it's just way too heavy." Max walked over to the arm and flicked it, the sound it made was solid and sturdy. Well, it was made of metal, of course it'd be heavy, "It's just not practical to walk around with a 50+ pound arm."
"Well, that's not that big a deal right? I mean, there's tons of materials you can use! Carbon fiber, aluminum, just for starters!" Artemis countered.
Max nodded, "Yep, that's right! I could use carbon fiber, it's strong yet flexible. Light, yet sturdy. It's really expensive though. I've got to think about people that just don't have that kind of money. I want to make something that can help the people who really need it, not just people with deep pockets."
"That's thoughtful of you." Artemis wanted to ask if there was anything he could do for paraplegics, but she held off. Although she felt like she had the best relationship with Max out of everyone, it still felt like she'd be revealing too much.
Max could tell that she had more questions, but shrugged when she didn't ask them, "So… What's up? You didn't come down to hang out did you?"
Artemis looked a bit bashful as she rested a hand on her hip, "No… Well- uh," the blond stumbled over her words uncharacteristically, "I need your help!" She finally got out.
Max chuckled, "Sure, what with?"
She shouldn't have been surprised, he'd never turned her down before anyway, or anyone for that matter. And yet, Artemis still found herself relieved that she wasn't denied.
"I've had this idea for an arrow for awhile, but I don't exactly have the materials to put it together myself… Also, I'd like to iron out some of the finer points."
"Sounds fun!" Max said, "What were you thinking?"
"I felt like I've been needing arrows that aren't purely offensive. I'd like to be able to gather info for the team or if I'm solo, I don't really have anything that can offer that right now."
Max perked up, "Oh! I have something that I think will work perfectly with that!" He typed in his computer for a moment pulling up the proper file before sending it to the holographic table he had. "It's a tiny drone that can stay active for up to 300 feet. I can find a way to redesign it and set it in an arrow, it shouldn't be too hard."
Artemis thought about it, "Hmm, how small is it?"
Max made an 'OK' gesture with his hand and pointed at the hole he made with his thumb and index finger, "About this big."
"Ok, maybe scratch putting it in the arrow then… What if I hid it somewhere on me? I mean, I could probably just carry that in one of my utility pouches."
"Or…" Suddenly a replica of the heroines utility belt was projected next to the drone, "What if it was part of the belt?" He overlapped the two so the drone sat neatly in the belt buckle.
Artemis nodded in happy agreement, "Yes! That's perfect!"
The two continued to work out other means for her to gain info and came up with three ideas that they could work around. Firstly, the drone. Second, an arrow that sent out a wave similar to sonar. It would mark the area for as long as it was active giving a rough layout of the room, as well as showing if anything was moving.
And finally, an arrow with an alarm attached to it. The last one was mostly for if she or the team had to hold a particular area. If she placed that arrow in strategic places she'd know the moment someone got within a certain radius of said arrow. This piece of equipment would have been particularly useful in the mission to protect Dr. Roquette.
"I think that's good, I don't want to be carrying too much stuff. Thanks Max, I really appreciate it!"
"You know, you shouldn't be so nervous to ask me for something. This is fun for me!" The younger teen smiled.
"I'll keep it in mind."
Max smiled ecstatically as he sprinted at super speeds up and down the happy harbors streets. It was the dead of night, so the city was practically a ghost town. Especially so close to Mt. Justice.
A series of information popped up on the UI of his helmet. Power, temp, and several other units that was dutifully recorded by Aiva.
"Things seem to be running much smoother, Mr. West."
"Haha, you're telling me! This is incredible!" Max slowed to a skidding stop, chest heaving as he tried to catch his breath. "Wally… Never seems… This tired!" The young man noted.
Whilst he took the moment to recoup he cycled through the recorded data, "Energy distribution isn't very efficient… and it looks like it's bottlenecking. Temp is kind of high too… This system won't work for the long term either I guess." He frowned.
With a hiss, the helmet of the suit disconnected and Max pulled it off. The cool air was refreshing, "I'm close… I'm so close."
"Mr. West, it's quite late. I recommend calling it for the night and taking note of any changes you want to make before resting for the night."
Max heard Aiva speak in his ear piece and nodded, "I agree. Please prepare the lab to receive me." Aiva didn't respond, but he was sure that his command had been heard.
It didn't take Max long to get back in the hideout, not with superspeed. Although he made sure to carefully sneak his way back to his lab.
A series of aggressive and startled beeps froze him in his tracks. The boy jumped and turned around, spotting Superboy's extraterrestrial ball turned pet. "W-Wait Sphere, relax! It's me, Max!"
The ball rolled slightly before beeping suspiciously at the young man.
"Ehh, what would it take for you to keep this secret?"
It was strange having a conversation with an alien robot, but Sphere somehow made it know exactly what it was feeling at any given moment.
The bot beeped in reply.
"I don't know if Superboy would let me do that…" Max said unsurely before the spherical droid beeped and began to roll away, "W-Wait, fine! I'll do it…" he groaned.
Blackmailed by a metal ball. Huh. Never ever would Max have guessed such a time would come.
"Sphere sure does drive a hard bargain…"
"There, ya happy?" Max asked Sphere.
The advanced piece of tech rolled around in excitement beeping in what Max interpreted as happy. The notable difference being that instead of being a dull gray, Sphere had flamed patterns running down the center that made a full ring around it.
To think he'd be blackmailed into a paint job.
"It looks quite splendid on you, Sphere." Aiva complimented.
"Superboy wouldn't do anything over a paint job… right? Either way, his reaction will definitely be hilarious."
Max followed Sphere out of his lab, intent on seeing the kryptonian clones reaction to the stellar paint job. He was unable to keep pace with the speeding ball, but eventually caught up as it rolled in true hotrod fashion around both Superboy and M'gann.
"Woah! Sphere, what's with the paint?" Superboy asked with much less of a reaction than Max was hoping for.
"I think it's adorable! You look good Sphere!" M'gann added.
"What's with the human look, M'gann?" Max had been trying to call the martian by her given name rather than a human one. It seemed disrespectful to him to not even bother to try. He hoped that it also made the green girl feel not so far from home.
Be that as it may, M'gann seemed dead set on playing the part of a human. At the moment, she dressed herself up in cute human clothes (if a little outdated) and morphed her skin into the pinkish tan hue human's seemed to have. A far cry from Martian Manhunter's black human counterpart.
"Oh, Max! Today's the first day that me and Superboy get to go to school! Isn't that fun?" Behind her, Red Tornado, Martian Manhunter, and Aqualad stood.
"Yea… School. Wooo…!" He cheered unenthusiastically. "So, what name are you going by then Superboy?" He questioned.
Superboy seemed confused at the question, "Huh?"
"You can't very well show up as Superboy, you need an identity. A secret identity." Kaldur informed.
Martian Manhunter suggested John, citing that both himself and Red Tornado have secret identities with the name John. Superboy looked unconvinced.
"How about Conner? That's always been my favorite earth name…" M'gann suggested softly.
"You know, you do look like a Conner." Max chimed in.
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Superboy questioned.
The young genius shrugged, "Nothing really, just that you've got a very Conner face."
The kryptonian narrowed his eyes but relented, Conner was a fine enough name for him.
"That's great!" M'gann clapped her hands happily, "Now we need a last name."
"How about Kent…?" It was clear the greener of the two martians here was pushing in a certain direction but Max almost immediately waved it off.
"No way, that's lame! You should totally be a West! That way, I won't be the youngest anymore! I'll totally be your big brother, haha!"
Superboy- Conner lifted up the smaller boy with nary an effort, "You'll be my big brother?"
"Ehh-Haha… Well, we can work the details out?"
Conner smirked victoriously, "Fine then, this all works out for me. Conner West it is then. I guess if this is supposed to be secret I can't show up in my regular clothes…" he walked off, dragging Max with him and M'gann not far behind.
"What are you ganna change into a plain black shirt?" Superboy didn't answer that, ignoring the mocking question out of embarrassment.
"Oh! I'll pick out your clothes!" M'gann offered but Conner shook his head.
"Does it have to be West? What if I was Conner East?" He mumbled.
"Hey! Don't look down on the West family name! We've got Kanye West, Adam West, Jerry West, and not to mention ME!"
"And Wally!" M'gann added in.
The small group of Red Tornado, Martian Manhunter, and Aqualad sweat dropped at the retreating trios conversation. Well, Red Tornado didn't.
"I guess they'll be ok." Aqualad commented.
"Who's Jerry West?" Conner asked.
"He's the NBA!"
"The NBA?" Superboy asked unconvinced, "How's that work out?"
"He's the actual NBA logo! Therefore he is the NBA!"
"Hmm… I don't really care for basketball that much."
"ARGH! You're Conner West! West, damnit!"
Max stringently went through the motions of a martial arts exercise. They were much too old fashioned to be used modern day, let alone against villains, but they served him well in getting coordinated.
The youngest member of the team had the cave all to himself now that Conner and Megan had school to go to, and Kaldur had gone off to who knows where. He'd been on a self imposed workout plan for a while now, ever since he'd been utterly useless against Cheshire and Klarion (without Fate's helmet at least). Having the gym to himself was almost relieving.
Nobody looked at him wrong or made fun of him, but the fact was that he was incredibly underdeveloped compared to the rest of them. Being alone, gave the young man a sense of ease and let him push himself without feeling anxious.
It hadn't been very long since the team's founding or since Max had started training physically, so there was nothing groundbreaking. To him at least. On the outside looking in, there was certainly improvement but there was still a long way to go.
Physically speaking, he was able to build some strength here and there, though there was some size to be desired. As far as technique went, he didn't look nearly as awkward.
A small timer on his watch went off and Max stopped his traditional martial arts movements. Next up on the list was the last of his weight training, then he could shower and eat something.
Max tapped on his table in frustration, none of it was working out the way he needed it to! He'd gone through roughly 23 redesigns of his speedster suit and every simulation he ran with the data he had, came to the same inefficiencies as the MKII had. AND the bottlenecking seemed to get worse. It was incredibly frustrating.
He swiped the projection away to be worked on later, instead focusing on something closely related to his prosthetics. The prototype he had drawn up was akin to an exoskeleton for the legs.
It's purpose was to help those that had lost the full functionality of their legs regain that freedom to walk. It was one of the first ideas Max got when he took out the first speedster suit, so he was sure to make note of it soon after. What was before him was his first iteration of such a device.
It looked incredibly barebones, but he didn't want it to cover the legs like pants. That'd be too much of a hassle for someone that couldn't move their lower half. He wanted it to be easy to use and quick to put on. In Max's mind it shouldn't be a chore. With that goal, it was designed specifically to be open and quick to access.
The young man was working just to finish putting the final touches on this blueprint. He wanted to help lots of people with this technology, but he was well aware that he didn't have the assets to fund production or distribution. Not to mention he wasn't old enough to even begin thinking about acquiring those kinds of assets. It was more corporate and business than he was ready for at his age.
So, knowing who Batman really was, he showed him his idea and the older hero agreed to set up something of a pitch to WayneTech. Chances were it'd be successful, Batman wouldn't waste his time otherwise, but the challenge was proving that he'd be useful beyond just a blueprint. If things went exactly to plan, they wouldn't change much (if anything). But if they didn't, he wanted to be there and wanted to know why they made changes.
Again, the goal was to help everyone, not just people with deep pockets. That's why he went to Batman and not somewhere like S.T.A.R labs or Lexcorp. Despite his incredible fortune, Bruce was incredibly generous and did an unprecedented amount of charity work. It was his hope that WayneTech wouldn't use this design to cheat those disabled out of even more money.
And maybe, just maybe, he'd take the prints for the Isolation Chamber too… That was if WayneTech proved to be trustworthy, that is.
IM DONE!
For the time being this might feel very 'Slice of Life', but I'm honestly digging that. It's fun to toy with interactions and build on character relationships.
To be 1000% honest, the main part of my story is supposed to take place post S1. Like where my own original arcs and things would come in is between S1 and S2, setting up a new dynamic come S2 and S3. The only reason I didn't start there immediately is because I wanted to build a solid backstory and create meaningful relationships. Particularly, the thought of a story that felt like it had actual consequences that weren't already a part of YJ appealed to me when I started this.
Writing through season 1 (as much as I love it) is just kind of tedious for me rn. But I know how important it is to my overall story. I think I'll continue to summarize things that aren't largely important, to make things easier on myself. If it wasn't mentioned, you can interpret that as it remaining the same as the show.
If you didn't notice already, this chapter takes place slightly after ep 9 and during 10. I know this one was short, but thanks for being patient.
Anyway, till next time.