You would think with all the time I spend tinkering - getting paid to tinker, even - that I would have my kit up and running in no time. And for the most part, you'd be right.
My power armor had suffered only a superficial amount of damage during the fighting, probably because I had prioritized healing people over getting into a fist fight with Mush. So that took me nearly no time to finish. Power cells took nearly no time at all to whip up or recharge. I've previously mentioned that I barely have to pay any attention to brew healing serum.
Really the only thing that took more than five minutes to patch up or start on was fixing the damaged leg on Science Dog - and even that was drastically easier the second time around.
So if I had to explain the factors that lead to me taking nearly another week to be ready to go out on patrol again… I guess I'd have to start with therapy.
"Now, if you can, I'd like you to tell me in your own words what happened." The therapist - he had a little placard on his desk, which was located a few feet away from the couch and chair we were respectively sitting on that read 'Doctor Sharma' - said to me.
I shrugged uncomfortably at him, and opted to just do what I was told.
I have seen, way too many movies about uncooperative fucks, wasting everyones time, by refusing to take their therapy seriously.
"Well… okay so- so I was going to the hospital with my guard detail. And the Merchants attacked us- I mean, I think it was Merchants, I dunno, the report they're doing says that the Merchants were there but that someone basically gave every homeless person in the city a gun and told them I had a magic serum that was going to make all their addictions go away and stuff but that's ridiculous because the serum doesn't-" I started to explain, proceeding to explain my explanation, then explaining that explanation until the unbothered stare of the slight indian man who had asked the question, forced me to pause.
"A-anyway. I was… in the van with the guard detail." I repeated, then stopped to take a deep breath. It wasn't like I was going to cry or anything. I just… it was just hard. Like the words didn't want to come.
I wasn't going to cry because I'm not an actual child. There. Easy.
'Just gotta do what I'm told and I'll be better.'I pressed myself mentally.
"That is not how therapy works, sir." Merlin interjected.
'Then what the fuck is the point?' I snapped, before taking another deep breath.
'No, nevermind. Just, let me get through this bit.'
"Yes, sir." My AI acquiesced.
"John?" Doctor Sharma prodded me gently.
"Our van got hit from the side, and we went rolling. I'm pretty sure the two deaths were because the troopers with me bounced off my armor as we rolled." I blurted out. The Doctor nodded at my statement then opened his mouth - but for me it was like the flood gates had opened, and I couldn't stop or I wouldn't be able to muster the will to speak anymore.
"And then I got out and- I mean there were so many people. It was the middle of the day, and traffic was what you'd expect, and there wereso many people. And I mean, the attack only happened because of me, I mean, I know it literally wouldn't have happened if I didn't exist, so all the people who got hurt-" I continued to explain, trying to distill my feelings on the subject down to as few words as possible and probably failing.
"John, I know that-" the Doctor tried to interject.
"No, no, you aren't- I mean, Iliterally know what would have happened, if I didn't exist, and it would have sucked, and I still think I need to be here, but those specific peoplewouldn't have been hurt if-no onewould have died that day if I didn't-" I spluttered as I slowed down, getting lost in… well, recollection.
I actually had a really poor visual memory. I didn't think in pictures, my mental landscape was an entirely black space with words scrawled across it, which didn't lend itself well to remembering how things looked. But the sounds, the viscera, the sensation of it all - that had been burned into my mental retina like a laserdisc. I could perfectly replicate the sound of that trooper's throat snapping as he bounced off my open hand, never to get back up again. I could paint anexactpicture of the little girl who would live, but who - deep in her eyes - held the now infinite trauma of knowing what her own intestines looked like. I don't even know how many people I had worked on during that brief fight.
But I knew I could sketch out every last scene of desperation and pain without effort.
"John. Look at me. Good, good, now count to fifty, please." The doctor ordered me when I finally wound down, and I realized I had stopped talking and was now just staring blankly at the ceiling where my head rested on the arm of the couch I was laying on.
With painful slowness, I turned my head towards him, and started counting. It didn't make me feel better, but it did make me feel slightly more present.
Baby steps, I guess.
"Just so you know, bringing a girl to an abandoned building without explaining why is usually a bad sign." Emma said flatly to me as I skirted the edges of the building I was planning to turn into my new 'secret' workshop.
It wasn't that I had a problem telling the PRT what I was doing - they couldn't stop me from tinkering on my own time anyway - but I liked to keep a clear separation between stuff the PRT paid for, and stuff I was doing out of pocket.
For legal reasons, if nothing else.
Naturally I had informed Armsmaster that I was going to be building armor for Amy and Vicky - no reason to leave the flying brute out if I was going to be doing it anyway - but I hadn't… actually… detailed it.
Mostly because it was going to be sort of… bio… tinkery…
"Yeah, well. You wanted to hang out, and my therapist told me to be with my friends more often so-"
"So you invited me on the creepiest date possible?" Emma snarked at me.
I blinked and looked over at her, for the first time realizing that, yes, shewaskind if dressed up - I mean, as much as a teenager can do so. It was a cute blouse I guess, bright green so it went with her hair.
"What? No, sorry. Did I not… explain what we were doing?" I said slowly, drawing to a halt in front of Redmond Welding.
Yes I was aware this was the Undersiders hideout. In the future. But right now, it wasn't - so I could at least sort ofguarantee it was empty.
"Yeah, yeah. Blah blah tinker stuff, blah blah armor for New Wave. Do I get armor too?" She stated before asking, then did this thing where she skipped closer to me so that she had to look up into my face while asking.
I blinked at her again.
"I mean - I don't really have the resources to…" I trailed off, as she leaned closer to me, taking a step back so we wouldn't end up touching somehow.
"…to make a third suit. Maybe another time?" I finished, deflecting from the awkward attempt at intimacy with a person I wasn't honestly that close to.
Sorry Emma. I've seen all the shitty teen movies you're borrowing from and my libido doesn't activate for teenagers.
Emma - as socially competent as ever - took nearly zero time to readjust, shooting me a thin lipped smile of annoyance. I felt kind of bad for her, but ultimately, I was more than aware that she would probably find anywhere between six and ten guys to have crushes on the second she walked into highschool, so I wasn't that worried about it. Teenagers are stupid that way.
"Fine. So what, we just hang out while you do your… thing?" She asked, wiggling her fingers at me like I was magic or something.
I mean. I was. Magic I mean. But she didn't know that.
"Yeah, soon as my other friends get here." I explained, tilting my head upwards.
"Other… friends?" Emma asked me casually.
"Yeah. Kind of have to measure them to make armor for them you know? You can probably help me with that actually. Soph found it uncomfortable enough when I did it for her and we're cousins." I said without really thinking all that hard about what I was saying.
When Emma didn't immediately respond I looked back down to find her expression locked in a friendly smile that felt both fake and foreboding.
Eh. She'd probably thank me later, after I introduced her to Vicky. They worked in the same modeling field kind of right? Or… no wait, Vicky had just started the modeling thing now that she had powers. I guess that technically made Emma more experienced than her?
Whatever. I'm sure they'd get along fine, and then maybe Emma would have someone to latch on to that wasn't me.
The silence got sort of awkward while we waited, so I busier myself checking my cellphone for messages from Vicky and Sophia. Soph was jogging here after her morning shift on console duty - which she hadn't entirely been able to avoid after the Grue thing - and Vicky said she was just getting dressed, and would be here in five minutes. I assumed she'd be carrying Amy, so…
Man, I really need some male friends. I should… talk to Dennis more often maybe?
"I talked to Taylor yesterday." Emma finally said, breaking the silence.
"Oh yeah? That's good. What about therapy? Any of that?" I asked casually, while feeling anything but casual inside. Literally all I wanted was for Emma to get some help and chill the hell out. That was it. I didn't think it was a lot to ask.
"Daddy is… looking for someone." Emma admitted in a surly tone that sounded.. almost sort of fake, actually.
'Merlin is she lying to me right now?'I asked rhetorically.
"That would be impossible to tell, sir." He replied easily.
'I thought you were spying on them and everything?' I half asked and half whined.
"You explicitly told me to 'keep that creepy shit to myself', Sir."
'So, you know, but you won't tell me, because..?' I prodded.
"Second guessing your relationships is bad for your emotional development." The AI rattled off easily.
I stifled a groan, but didn't press further. I had to assume Merlin knew when it was important to tell me stuff, and, when it wasn't. Even if I didn't fully appreciate being the victim of what was most likely a self help book titled 'Child Rearing for Dummies'.
"So…" I trailed off. This was the problem I had with Emma. She acted like we were a lot closer than we actually were, and unlike Vicky, who I had a rapport with by dint of having read a novel where she was the main character, and Sophia, who I had to live with, I didn't really…know what to do with her. I'm asocial at the best of times, and was never much for small talk, so more often than not, being around the redhead just resulted in her bombarding me with questions that I did my best to answer while dodging her not at all subtle advances.
It was tiring, is what I'm saying. But, doctors orders and all - I didn't have that many friends, and I tried to keep my interactions with Vicky below the point that would tweak Dean.
I didn't necessarily succeed at that last thing, but I did try.
"Right. Taylor. I was actually over at her house when the news about you came on." Emma said quickly, picking up the thread and running with it, as excitement made its way back into her tone.
I… tried not to wince at the reminder, and the accompanying dazed sensation, and would have let her continue, but couldn't help but ask a question.
"You were hanging out while… watching the news?" I asked quizzically. That couldn't be standard teenage girl behaviour. Could it?
"No, no- I wanted to watch the livestream of your debut and then we saw all the stuff on Pho about the attacks so we turned the news on." She explained quickly before getting a thoughtful expression on her face.
"Did they script that by the way? You said your favourite music is rap, but you only listen to old rock music right?" She added, stepping closer to me again.
"I listen to a bit of everything, but itwasa little scripted. We're kind of the token 'black' superheroes in Brockton so…" I explained, then trailed off with a shrug.
"Well that's super shitty. I actually found an old vinyl thingy my Dad used to use in the garage, if you wanted to-" Emma started eagerly, only to be cut off as Vicky slammed into the ground on our right.
I was entirely unphased by the sudden loud noise and rush of air, but Emma's hands snapped out to grab my arm and started squeezing so hard it hurt.
"Yo! Sorry, I had to shower, I was doing some sparring with Uncle Neil before this!" Vicky cheered to me. I noted that she wasn't carrying Amy at probably about the same time that she noticed that I wasn't with Sophia.
"Where's-"
"What-"
We both paused, and I made a go ahead gesture with my free hand. Vicky, accustomed to this since it happened to us a lot, just shrugged and took a moment to readjust the black t-shirt she was wearing where the wind had obviously disheveled it. I'd told them they'd need to be measured and not to wear anything too hard to put on and take off.
And I was definitely going to hand that process off to Sophia or - if she didn't get here soon - Emma.
"What's up with her? Are- are you okay?" She asked, inching towards us and forcing me to realize that Emma still had a deathgrip on my arm and was hyperventilating just a little bit.
"I-" Emma said then paused to take a deep breath and I felt her grip loosen. "I'm fine. Sorry, you just scared me, is all."
"Sorry, John doesn't usually mind the noise so I don't always slow down right away." Vicky answered sheepishly, although her gaze swivelled downward to where Emma was still grabbing me.
Emma seemed to take note of the glance, at which point she plastered an apologetic look on her face and let go of me.
"Well look at that, Armsminicanmake friends." Amy's snarky voice called down from above us, breaking the momentary quiet.
I tilted my head up and was - again - unsurprised to see what was, for all intents and purposes, a gryphon gliding to a halt on the nearby pavement. Unlike the last attempt she had made at such a creature, this version of Amy's gryphon was a lot more traditional looking, although I guessed the internals were still a nightmare of esoteric bullshit not meant to be seen by mortal eyes.
Nothing that big has any right to fly without esoteric bullshit involved.
"I literally told you guys I was bringing a friend who knew my whole deal. I got permission from everyone even." I pointed out.
"Yeah but we thought you meant aboy."Vicky pointed out, even as Amy slid down the side of the Gryphon, and it started to wobble like it was made of jello, before compacting itself into a seagull over the course of three horribly disgusting seconds.
"I mean. I'm friends with you guys and you're all girls." I pointed out, reaching over to gently pry Emma's hands off of me. Again.
"Yeah but that's different. We've got professional overlap." Amy joked. She had pretty much the exact same clothes on as Vicky - sweatpants and a black t-shirt. Closer inspection showed the shirt had a white New Wave symbol on it, but I didn't really try to examine it that closely.
It was on her chest after all.
"You didn't even have powers until like, a week ago." I jabbed at the surly brunette.
"Doesn't matter. Cape family. I still count." She retorted, although she did blush slightly in embarrassment.
"So… Do you not have any friends without powers?" Emma asked suddenly, causing me to blink in surprise and actually think about it.
"…does my personal trainer count?" I tried, thinking of Mr Laborn.
"No." Emma said flatly.
"It's usually hard for people who don't have them to get people who do." Vicky said, eyeing Emma. She put a weird emphasis on the word 'get' that I wasn't parsing right, and I guess Emma didn't either because she just arched an eyebrow at the blond. I had a feeling she'd picked that up from Taylor's mom somewhere because It didn't seem like something her Mom would go for.
"A-ny-way!" I said, clapping my hands once for emphasis. "Let's just go inside. Soph will be able to get inside easy but I kind of need someone to fly up to that open window to unlock the door from the inside." I said, pointing to the offending second floor window on the metal shop.
""I got it."" Amy and Vicky said at the same time. Then Vicky paused and, demonstrating a rare amount of self awareness, copied my 'go on' gesture to her sister, who no doubt just wanted an excuse to make her new powers useful.
Amy smiled gleefully at the gesture, and the seagull - which had taken up a position on her shoulder like a parrot or something - fluttered up to the window.
Two minutes later, a Gorilla opened the front door.
"I needed thumbs, for the lock." Was all Amy said when I shot her a flat look at that. The look wasn't because of the gorilla - it was because she had jump scared the shit out of Emma with it while doing so.
We hadn't even started yet and I had a headache. I could not wait for Sophia to get here.
She was way better at distracting Amy than I was.
"What the fuck are you doing?" Was the first thing Soph asked me after ghosting through the door and stopping behind me to pull a towel out of her bag. She was wearing her jogging outfit, and was sweating like a dog - which made sense if she had actually run the entire distance here from Headquarters.
What I was doing was… complicated.
Well. No, it wasn't, but explaining it kind of was.
"He's not alwaysl ike this?" Emma asked curiously, having been hovering behind me pretty much any time I hadn't explicitly asked her to go do… anything else. Vicky had commented on it more than once with increasing levels of annoyance, and Amy - being Amy - had dogpiled on just out of principle.
Soph had actually shown up during a brief lull in the… I hesitate to call it conversation.
"Nah, he's always weird. I just wanna know what the fuck he's doing. Who the hell are you?" Sophia asked, bending over to pull a water bottle out of her bag that she promptly chugged.
"I'm Emma. John saved my life a while ago and we've been friends ever since." The redhead said with a pleasant smile that twitched slightly when Vicky made a loud snorting noise from across the room.
Yeah Emma and Vicky… well, they didn't fucking like eachother for some reason. I had no godly idea why - if you can be friends with Sophia then surely you have the forbearance for anything - but I had already committed to memory the fact that I shouldn't ever try to get them in the same room after this. It was a pity -
I had the feeling that Amy and Emma would have actually gotten along if the brown haired girl wasn't so set on following her sister's example.
It wasn't even like Vicky and Emma were openly insulting each other or anything. They just seemed like they annoyed each other.
"Huh." Sophia grunted, then turned entirely away from Emma to peer at what I was doing again. "So? What's with the art piece." She pressed.
The 'art piece' as it were, was about one hundred and forty kilos of rotten meat that I had begged off a handful of different butchers over the course of the week.
…rotten meat that I was doing my best to staple together into a roughly humanoid shape. I'd had to use pieces of wood and metal as structural supports in place of bone and all but… it did look a bit macabre.
"I-" I started to explain, but Emma jumped in and spoke over me. Also, she literally jumped on me, leaning over to balance her weight on my shoulder where I was crouched on the ground stapling a porkchop to a leg.
"He's growing power armor with fungus or moss or something. He said it would be cheaper than making metal armor, and would work better for a shapeshifter." She explained.
Sophia took on a thoughtful expression then shrugged. "Cool. For Amy's thing right?" She asked me.
"Yeah. She said she can still feel the thing, like an extra hand, so we have no idea if it getting hurt can make her bleed out or go into shock or something. And this power armor should shift with it so…" I trailed off, absently stapling another piece of material to the meat mannequin.
The truth was, if I could get away with using biological armor under Piggot - I would. The Encounter Suit wasn't the best power armor, but it suited our needs here perfectly. When it was done it was basically just dark blue skin with a visual texture not unlike shark hide, albeit much thicker than normal skin. I didn't technically have the specially cultured fungus needed to grow the stuff normally, but some working with Amy had gotten me what I needed from her projection.
Of course, that had led to a brief conversation about the dangers of biological warfare, to which Amy had summarily wrinkled her nose and said she'd rather just turn the thing into a unicorn.
Which, I mean, sure. Why not.
"How long do we have to do this anyway?" Vicky finally asked, drawing my attention to the area behind me where Vicky and Amy were using a piece of metal I'd conjured up for them each to stir two oil drums that were now full of chemicals at a constant but slow pace.
Vicky's was white. Amy's was a light turquoise.
Second skin was the best I could give them on short notice, mostly because I couldn't afford to buy this much meat three times over, even if it was rotten meat. Vicky only really needed 'armor' on the off chance that her shield went down, and while the second skin wasn't what I would consider heavy protection, it was still about as good as wearing a full body bullet proof vest. So it would definitely keep you alive in a pinch. I didn't know if Vicky was planning on switching costumes to match Amy, or if she was going to wear it as an undersuit beneath her already white costume - but honestly I didn't care.
To me 'wear armor' was just common sense.
"It has to stay at a constant consistency for an hour, then I have ten minutes to program it to the right size and shape- so maybe another fifteen minutes?" I offered. Technically, calling it 'smart matter' that I could 'program' was a cop out if not really a lie. There was a pseudo magical alchemical thing I'd have to do later involving a bunch of magical script and a usb with the right measurements on it.
I'd also feel worse about making them work, but the armor was for them. I technically wasn't getting anything out of this besides an excuse to hang around my friends.
…my friends who kind of hated each other. Hm.
Anyway, the point was, until I did some magic about it, the mixture second skin armor was made of was basically just really terrible glue.
"What about that?" Amy asked, gesturing at the meat mannequin with her chin.
I had no idea why she was mixing her vat herself - I had never said her projection couldn't do it for her - but I suppose she might just get some kind of catharsis out of doing it with her sister.
I was starting to realize that a lot of what made the Amy I knew so cranky all the time was the sensation of exclusion her powers created. Even after she got powers, she wasn't really on a team, she didn't really function as part of the unit - she was just there for after everyone else came home at the end of the patrol.
This Amy was still kind of a cranky bitch, but it felt like more of an affectation than a cry for help. A personality trait even.
"This'll take about three days, and I'll have to come here twice a day to make sure nothing has gone wrong with it." I answered.
"And then we can go on a patrol?" Amy all but demanded.
"Unless you want a gun or something - yeah." I said with a shrug.
"Oooh this is gonna be great! Glory Girl and Petting Zoo! Sister heroes!" Vicky cheered, letting go of her stirring implement to pose obnoxiously for a second before snatching it back up again.
"Sorry, Petting Zoo?" Emma asked incredulously.
"Yeah! Cus she can make Dumbo over there into any animal- it makes sense!" Vicky started to explain, then switched to yelling mid sentence when Emma started to laugh so hard she was snorting like a pig.
"It- it's so stupid though! Oh my god! Did- you actually picked Glory Girl!? It makes so much sense!" Emma cackled, leaning on me and howling with laughter.
"It's- it's not that bad…" Amy muttered. Then she got some support from a surprising angle I should have probably expected.
"It's fine." Sophia said idly, leaning over me to lightly swat the top of Emma's head.
"Ow!" She complained, the mirth draining out of her. "What the hell? You can't just hit a person!" She yelled.
Sophia responded by stepping forward. Just one step.
I recognized that step. It was the step that typically precluded Sophia getting into a fight after a prolonged period of posturing. I recognized it because it had taken four such altercations before anyone had reported them to a teacher, and six such altercations for everyone to get the message and leave her alone.
I also knew that Emma had actually pissed off Sophia somehow, which I guess made sense when I allowed myself to internalize that Soph and Amy were friends somehow.
"Ehem." I said, then cleared my throat for effect.
Sophia - who I have to stress, I have been going well out of my way to make even just a little bitmore social - paused to turn her glare on me for a second, then snorted and meandered over to talk to Amy and Vicky like Emma wasn't even in the room.
"You live with that?" Emma asked me incredulously.
"Believe it or not she really matured since I met her." I said with a sigh.
"That's mature?" She hissed at me.
"Oh yeah. You still have all your teeth." I replied.
Yeah. Definitely,.. definitely not going to bring Emma around anymore.
Naturally, and possibly in sheer defiance of my wishes, reality bent just to spite me.
"Yikes. So… you'll be here tomorrow? Want some company? Like your therapist said, right?" Emma offered innocently.
"I don't think-" I tried.
"Me and Ames could come around tomorrow. We have to plan our patrol after all!" Vicky called from behind me with quicksilver speed.
I sighed.