Tech Mistress

With a hammer in hand, I repeatedly hit the metal plate, hammering it in the right places, making the metal cover the almost round part of the device, which was the size of my head, and ignored the fingers for a moment.

When I was finished with the hand, I picked a few rings, carefully holding them so that I don't hurt myself with the bolts I melted into them, I let the digits go through them as I pushed the rings into where human knuckles would be, making the bolts enter with no difficulty.

The rings were too loose though, so I brought my plier and clammed it onto one of the rings. It click-clacked as I fastened the ring. I repeated the process with the other rings.

When I made sure they were properly stuck, I jumped off my stool and went to the electromagnetic microwave, where I was microwaving parts of the exterior for the fingers for.., reasons. My power told me to do that.

I put on my rubber gloves and turned off the microwave, enjoying the little 'ping' sound as it opened. I lifted the plate and went back to my bench, standing this time instead of sitting as I put the exterior on the digits.

When I was finished, I took a step back to enjoy the beauty of my gauntlet properly.

God, it was an ugly thing.

I puffed my chest in pride, before scolding myself. I wasn't done yet. I haven't painted over it yet. It looked like it was picked from the trash with its rust and dents. It was still bigger than my head, so I went to both ends of my bench to remove the brakes from the wheels and wheeled it to the other room in the storage where I put my more peculiar tinker tools.

I stopped by the five feet tall minimizing machine. It looked like the device where the villain would strap the young hero on the table, monologuing about his goal to take over the world, while the laser got closer and closer to the hero. It had a screen on it.

Except there were no straps or table, just a platform with red and white circles getting smaller and smaller the nearer the center they are. I lifted the gauntlet with a heave, exhaling to lift the 50 pounds device before slowly putting it on the ground.

I hurried outside of the surface to the screen on the machine and crunched in the necessary numbers. Because I didn't have time to give it proper maintenance this week, I gave one prayer for good luck and pulled down the liver.

I held my breath as the machine charged the energy before shooting it like a laser. Please work, please work, please work, I begged as I saw the gauntlet decrease in size till it was around the size of my hand.

When the machine finished shooting the laser, I waited for a few seconds, waiting for the inevitable explosion to happen.

Nothing.

"Yes!" I whisper shouted, not wanting the world to notice my happiness and slap me down. I ran to the hand and tried to lift it, almost falling on my back. The bench stopped me from falling on my back on the ground.

Right, same mass but denser, of course, it would weigh the same, I thought, cursing myself for my lapse of judgment.

I went to the white mannequin with the same length and proportions as me, with a small block on its lower back, before putting the gauntlet on its hand. I connected the gloves to the big computer in the room and activated the glove.

The gauntlet lit with blue light, before a translucent blue-tinted shield that covered the body tightly shone before disappearing. I saw on the computer screen the numbers change as I heard the glove crunch, the self-repairing system fixing the gauntlet.

I sighed. Instead of showing how to build a proper mechanical gauntlet from the beginning, my power thought it was better to let me build a half-working piece of tech and let the self-repairing system fix the rest.

Why? Because my power is a bitch like that.

It's still better than nothing though. I went to one of the walls where one of my late grandpa's rifles that my dad let me borrow hung. I pressed a button under it, causing the room's barrier to glow before stuttering and turning invisible.

Now all and any vibrations will stay in this room.

Making sure that head protectors were on my ears, I picked up the rifle and then walked back to the computer.

Breathing properly, I removed the safety before aiming the rifle at the model. When I got the bullseye in my sight, I shot.

The barrier around the head glowed before the bulled bounced off.

I glanced at the screen, looking at the health bar. Barely a scratch.

I shot a second time.

Then a third.

Then three more times in rapid succession.

I turned back to the screen and clicked my tongue. It lost 13% of its battery. The barrier is good at defending against one hit, no matter the strength, but its battery quickly drains against rapid strikes.

Well, that teaches me not to use the nearest cape as inspiration. Dang it, I swore. I spent a day stalk-, following Glory Girl to see her power in action.

And my combat battery has only a third of the energy stored up that my lab computer has. Sensing my dissatisfaction, my power sent me blueprints on how to optimize the barrier before I shook my head.

It would only make my shield last a minute longer and that was not worth the effort of a whole week to rebuild the battery, and that was only the battery itself. I would need to change the way my wires are built to be able to connect the battery to my gauntlet.

I have to fight for real to draw better inspirations for my power.

I gulped.

Not of fear of fighting, but of fear of how my dad might react.

I have already caped once, my stun gun was strong enough to knock out grown men. I even managed to stop an assault on a gay couple. But when I went back home at dawn, my dad was there, sitting on the sofa, with his eyes closed, looking to the world like the calmest man in the universe.

He quickly showed how foolish that thought was. I came out clean then and told him about my powers. Then he continued berating me before forcing me to explain how the stun gun worked.

I still cringe at the shoddy design of it, if I have missed him twice or thrice, or if the nazi managed to take it from my hand, I would have been a goner.

So now my dad acts as my agent, pushing me towards a certain kind of tech or vetoing some of my more risky ideas.

I sighed with a small quirk on my lip, glad that my dad and I are on better terms now, now that we are, dare I say, a team.

I looked up at the clock and something heavy fell into my stomach.

It was 10 PM. I was here since eight AM!

I rushed to the computer, my fingers snapping at the key. I let the glove take 10% of the energy from the computer. I ran to the model and took my glove. I nearly fell but I managed to put the gauntlet on my hand, hugging tightly but not too tight, and the barrier that glowed helped with carrying the weight of my glove.

Making sure my feet were on the ground, I power walked to my stationary teleporter. This time I didn't feel the need to pray for luck because I always properly maintain it, before even my other tech.

I put my palm on the screen. With a light that slowly went up then down, it read my hand before giving me access to the map I downloaded in it. It had three highlighted points in it, one point in the same place where my lab was and the one where my house was.

I still haven't used my third one. It changes places every day.

"Teleport me to Point: The Hebert Residence," I ordered the computer, closing my eyes as the surface beneath beamed with light strong enough to hurt the eye.