It was late on Tracy Island. Brains, yawning fit to burst, had already been shepherded away by MAX before he could doze off on the projector again, but the Mechanic had lingered in the lab, nursing a cold cup of coffee as he re-ran simulations and double checked his calculations before turning in. His Zero-X had been a big ship but this new Zero-X would be so much bigger. He had to be sure the T-Drive would have the power to move that much mass.
He paused for a moment, contemplating and comparing the wire schematics he'd called up for his Zero-X and what he and Brains were tentatively dubbing the Zero-XL. She was all clean and aerodynamic lines that once complete and fully assembled would capture the eye and draw the gaze down the length of the craft, her fuselage wrapped in a dusky blue hull that would kiss the sky. It felt so good to be building beauty again, not the brutal and raw industrial design of his mechas and the blunt instrument style of the craft he'd built for The Hood- stark and stripped back to evoke power and menace and feed his former master's ego.
Perhaps he'd been punishing himself too, denying himself the pleasure of making truly aesthetically pleasing things he could take pride in as some kind of unconscious penance for the blood on his hands. He dwelled on the thought for a moment longer, then dismissed it with a gesture to check the latest run of calculations.
The Mechanic lost himself in the beauty of the numbers for a time, then a faint step drew his attention for a moment. Kayo was up there somewhere amongst the gantries and walkways, perched like a cat surveying her domain. She'd be down shortly to shoo him off to rest, but for now she was content to just watch.
People talked of guardian angels. International Rescue and their Thunderbirds had been compared to them many times. Most people pictured guardian angels as beings of light with shining wings spread aloft as they plucked victims from danger. If he had one, he pictured her with golden eyes and wings of raven black.
He didn't love her. No, to quote an old sci-fi show he'd all but memorised as a teen, what he felt for her was far nobler than that.
On the Hex she'd shown him there was another path where he could live again, not simply existing in purgatory in the cold embrace of space. She'd given him a reason to try and get his freedom back, the encouragement that he could have redemption and be worthy of the gift that Brains had offered him so many months before. And now, his will and his mind once again his own and his work unsullied by The Hood's insidious whispers, he could truly begin again. He hadn't dared consider building another T-Drive while The Hood still had hooks in his brain. He wouldn't take the chance that something would slip through, that his hands would move without his accord and sabotage what he was trying to do.
And now he once again taking abstract concepts and bringing them to reality. The initial introductions had perhaps been a little rough, his people skills were somewhat disused. Brains had accepted him without a second thought and ushered him into his domain at the heart of the island. Kayo contented herself to observe and respect his space while he was working and draw him into the occasional conversation when he wasn't. Mrs Tracy had seen past the tattoos and modifications to the wounded man inside. She had a lot of experience with wounded people.
The brothers had been on a sliding scale of 'guarded' to 'hostile' and EOS was constantly lurking in the network, monitoring him. They'd be next to impossible to win over so he wasn't going to try, especially with what he'd tried to do to Scott and Virgil. Words were too easily turned to insidious lies.
Actions meant more to the Tracy brothers.
He'd let those speak for him.