"So," Taylor said, "You aren't a hero because you are too busy with your get all the humans off the planet except for parahumans project?"
"Project Ark is less of a mouthful, but yeah," Lila answered, "although I had a breakthrough on my power generation project the other day, so Stage 1 is basically complete, except for placing the generators, and, you know, figuring out how Simurgh screws up our brains. I'll monitor for the collapse of the power grid and put my plan into action when it happens."
"What are you planning in the meantime?" Taylor asked. "Only so many people need prosthetic eyes. What else are you doing?"
"I guess being a hero with my best friend," Lila answered. Had her own brain been unconsciously pushing her in this direction the entire time? She would have to put her entire attention on that at some point. She was too smart to be led around by the nose, even by herself.
Taylor's smile lit up the room. "Well, let's see some power armor then," she said.
Lila smiled back. She would let her friend repress her knowledge of Earth's impending doom…for now.
The conversation that followed Taylor's assertion that they were going to be heroes felt more like an interrogation. Taylor wanted a full review of what Lila was able to create and her limitations...few by Lila's estimation. Once Taylor began asking questions, Lila was really able to drill down on what was actually practical to build into a set of armor. The armor itself would be run by a new VI that Lila agreed to program.
The body of the armor would be a tungsten steel composite with titanium bracing and hard-light force fields to reinforce the entire thing. Lila planned to install a hard-light CREEC as well as a physical CREEC as backup. They were still working on what else was actually going into the armor, as well as their hero names.
"What about something from mythology?" Taylor asked. "It's classic but heroes don't use mythology for their names very often, Aegis notwithstanding, so most of the names aren't taken."
"That's because most heroes don't want to press their luck by naming themselves after actual Gods," Lila responded. "Can you imagine the villains that would come out of the woodwork to fight a hero named after a god? Not to mention, Crawler would drag the rest of Slaughterhouse Nine to wherever he has to if he can fight someone named Hercules."
"I guess," Taylor replied. "If we went with a mythology name, we would have to be careful and soft-sell it. Maybe we could go with something that was less well known."
"I could make your armor look like whatever you want," Lila reminded her. "If you wanted to go with a myth, I could build your armor to match."
Taylor tapped on her e-reader some more, looking up myths and legends, while Lila watched with her power.
"Do we have to match?" Taylor finally asked. "I mean do we have to both come from the same source material. I think I have something, but I don't know if it works in with your ideas," Taylor said. "I was thinking about going with Atalanta. I always loved her story, basically she became a hero despite everyone in her way."
"I like it," Lila replied with a wide smile. "It's fitting too. I think I'll go with Hippolyta. We don't have to match, but it's more fun if we do."
"What type of armor are you thinking of going with?" Taylor asked. "I'm not really sure what armor Amazons used."
"It doesn't really matter," Lila replied. "I don't think I can make armor more durable than I am. I may just go with solid-looking hard-light armor."
"If your battery dies, you don't have a costume though," mentioned Taylor.
"Probably wouldn't happen outside an Endbringer fight," Lila responded. "I could just build normal armor out of tungsten steel. It's not like the weight matters. I just don't want to have to spend a lot of time fixing armor I don't need after a fight. I wonder how I would hold up against Alexandria, or an Endbringer. Do you think I could convince Alexandria to hit me?" she asked with a bright smile.
"Maybe if you asked nicely," Taylor replied, a grin on her face.
"I'm thinking a bow for you, since that is a very Atalanta thing." Lila said, more thinking out loud than anything else. "I can add some target tracking so you always know where the arrow is going."
"I was pretty good at archery in camp the last year. The arrows will be non-lethal, I assume?" Taylor responded. "I'm guessing that the armor is going to make me stronger too."
"You'll have stuff collapse under its own weight before you find something you can't lift. The HLGs reinforce the armor with lifting, punching, basically anything you normally need muscles for. I think I can reproduce the PRT's containment foam. I can probably fit a thousand gadgets into an arrow. Like that old superhero, Green Arrow. Are you going to want to fly? I have several options for that."
"Uh, do you even need to ask that," Taylor said with a huge smile. "Nobody ever said no to flying. What about you, any weapons?"
"I'm thinking of a shield and spear to complete the look," Lila said. "I don't really need them, but I can pack them full of tech; some sensors and maybe a gravity generator. I can feed the sensor data to my eye, so I don't even need a HUD in my helmet.
"How long is this all going to take to build?" Tayor asked.
"I can have most of your gear done by next Monday, I think," replied Lila. "We'll still have to practice individually and as a team. You'll have a VI to do most of the heavy lifting operating the armor, but you still need to figure out how to give commands to the VI and how to operate the armor, especially if the VI is knocked out."
"How likely is that though?" Taylor asked.
"I'm building a level of redundancy into everything," Lila responded. "It should all be resilient, but we should still train for contingencies. I can put a training plan together, like I did with the programming course."
"And how long will the training program be for?" Taylor asked.
"Anxious to be a hero?" Lila asked. "I can compress it down to a month. I still actually build the armor, but I can have SANDI rig up a hard-light simulator and run you through the training. I also need to give you a physical training regimen that you'll need to follow. Just because you are in armor doesn't mean you shouldn't be physically fit too."
"Like pushups and sit-ups and stuff?" asked Taylor.
"And running," Lila responded. "Most of it, except the running, you can do in thirty minutes in the morning. If you want to run together, I can meet up with you every day."
"You run?" Taylor asked incredulously.
"Not really," said Lila. "I don't really have muscle breakdown/buildup, or sweat, or breath anymore, so exercise doesn't really help me. I can turn it all down and run with you though. Oh, the training needs to include basic combat too," she added. "The VI can do a lot of the combat for you, but you should be trained so you can handle it yourself. I can build some software into the armor that will run basic combat motions, but it's best not to rely on it."
"I can understand why everyone wants a Tinker on their team," Taylor said. "It seems like you can build anything we need."
"Not all tinkers are like that," Lila replied. "Some only have a very narrow specialization. Others have a broad specialization, like Armsmaster. You do realize that everyone is going to assume that you're the Tinker and I am a brute that you gave a little Tinkertech to, right?"
"Why would they think that?" Taylor asked, a look of confusion on her face. "We could both be Tinkers."
"Sure," Lila said, "but Tinkers aren't usually Brutes, so they won't think I'm a Tinker and Brute. Also, most Tinkers tend to cover themselves in tech. You'll be covered in tech, ergo, you're the Tinker. We may as well just lean into their expectations. You will have to study up on tech jargon a little though. If anyone asks to collaborate, just tell them that your Tinkering doesn't work like that. I'm fine with you getting credit for the tech. It helps keep both of our identities safe, confusing everyone with what our powers are," Lila assured Taylor.
"Okay then," Taylor started to continue, when a siren began to sound in the distance outside.
As they listened, other sirens began sounding around town as well. It was an Endbringer alert. After a few seconds, the siren changed to a warbling tone that indicated Brockton Bay was not the target…this time.
They both let out the breath they were holding.