by H D Forth
I looked around the room, until my eyes alighted on something hanging in the corner. A punching bag. “Let’s try it out.” I said, my eyes alight with excitement.
There are generally two ways to increase the amount of kinetic force you can deliver. It’s a pretty simple equation, velocity times mass equals the kinetic energy output. This meant if I wanted to hit harder, there were two ways I could do it. I could increase the speed at which I hit, like a bullet. Or, I could increase the mass, the weight with which I hit, think impact with a car.
The aluminum composite was about three times lighter than my current carbon steel frame. That’s three times more weight per punch, which means I hit with that much more force.
I hadn't actually done the calculations when I reared back, ready to hit the punching bag. Judging from the way Kani’s eyes widened, then let out a screech, covered her face and jumped away, I realized she might’ve. At that point however it was already too late.
With a deep hollow sounding thud, my fist slammed full force through the bag. As my punch dug right through, I hit the bag with my entire weight, causing it to rip further, before suddenly holding my weight. Until with a loud ripping sound, the socket the bag hang in ripped out of the ceiling.
The punching bag, landed heavily on the floor, the innards spilling onto the ground. I stared in surprise as dust fell from the four holes left from the screws in the ceiling.
“Oops.”
***
Needless to say, I spend the rest of the night looking up how to fix the ceiling, actually fixing it and did my best attempt at sowing the bag up again. By the time I was finished the sun had risen, and Kani came down from the bedroom, where she had been sleeping.
“Ahh, you got it up again,” She said, her voice groggy.
“Yeah,” I replied, making sure that the huge patch I’d made was facing away from any entrances, in hopes that Val wouldn’t notice immediately. “Just in time to go to work too.”
She nodded at me, “Good luck.”
Chapter Ninety-Five
The return to work was… weird. I wouldn't go as far as to say awful, just awfully odd. It wasn't strange because everything had changed the few weeks that I had been gone. Quite contrary, nothing had changed. As I clopped up in front of work, I returned to find a tried looking Erik, pounding down a cup of coffee as he got some of the morning sunshine on him.
“Double shift?” I asked, trying to sound like nothing had happened at all.
He looked at me for a moment, then startled as he seemed to recognize me suddenly. “Vanys?” He asked, almost tentatively.
Maybe I hadn't gotten my face as right as I thought I had?
“Howls, man.” He mumbled squinting at me. “You lost weight… are you taller? You seem taller.”
"The right kinda stress'll do that to ya," I told him, affixing a smirk on my face. "Not the height thing, that's just because I've lost weight. You probably just think I'm taller because you're used seeing how wide I was." I really hadn't been that overweight, I had been slightly pot-bellied, but not obese.
He frowned at me for a moment, obviously considering my words with a degree of skepticism. Which was fair, it was all lies after all. I hadn't actually put a lot of thought into what I was gonna tell them. I had only remembered on the way over, that I needed to come up with some kind of explanation to them something.
“Anyways!” Erik said, waving away the previous conversation. “How are you? Going strong?”
"I'm alright," I told him. "Val's been helping a lot. Her and Kani both actually."
He raised an eyebrow at me, before gesturing for the door into our office, suggesting I should go first. "Val, you say?"
“I do believe I did.”
***
Explaining my physical changes to the others were more comfortable, if tiresome. It was all the same questions: "Did you lose weight?"
"Did you get surgery done? I swear you've gotten taller."
"I like the new hair color, you should keep it."
That last one actually surprised me. I hadn't really thought about it too much. When I had first gotten into the robot. It had a deep shade of dark hair, it was basically black unless you caught it in the right light, then it might seem bluish. By the time I had gotten a chance to reconstruct my face, I had gotten so used to looking at the new hair color, that I had forgotten to change it back, to my natural dark brunette hair color.
The absolute weirdest part was the job. Though my job was to listen to AIs’, I never actually directly interacted with any. It was all recordings of two AIs interacting with each other.
So despite my Technopathy, nothing about my actual work had changed. I could enter words without clicking the keyboard, or interact with the program without the mouse, but no drastic and sudden boost to my productivity.
I did, however, find that I had even less patience for my job now than I did before. Back then I could've happily gone to work, and been the intermediary between an AI and a private storage facility.
Now though, I could hardly stand it. I would only barely be making more money here at this job than I would as a hero. Since most of the money I earned doing hero work was put back into HQ and other such stuff, it didn't seem likely that I would be able to go full time, at any point soon.
Unfortunately.
***
I let out a heavy sigh as I stepped out of the office. I had taken a little longer getting finished, that meant the night team had already arrived, and the day team had left for home. All to avoid anyone seeing where I was going, which was decidedly not home.
Luckily, Erik had been one of the first people to leave today. Otherwise, he would've stuck around so we could go together. He'd once said that it built camaraderie, the hard part about disputing that, was how correct he was.
Erik wasn't just a work friend, despite my best attempts. He was the next best thing to a best friend. The only reason that I hadn't been talking more with Emmet was probably that he knew me too well. Or at least the old me.
If hadn’t ever met Val, and had just gone home from the bank and taken as many days off as I could get, then I really wouldn't want anything to do with work or Erik for a while. I would have to see about ratifying that, but it would have to wait until I had some spare time.
Maybe more time with Erik and Emmet was what I needed to really fix things with Kani, I thought hopefully.
The trip back to headquarters, took just about half an hour when jogging, though it currently did lightly drain my power core. I thought I would’ve mostly recharged by the time I had changed.
Chapter Ninety-Six
The return to work was… weird. I wouldn't go as far as to say awful, just awfully odd. It wasn't weird because everything had changed the few weeks that I had been gone. Quite contrary, nothing had changed. As I clopped up in front of work, I returned to find a tried looking Erik, pounding down a cup of coffee as he got some of the morning sunshine on him.
“Double shift?” I asked, trying to sound like nothing had happened at all.
He looked at me for a moment, then startled as he seemed to recognize me suddenly. “Vanys?” He asked, almost tentatively.
Maybe I hadn't gotten my face as right as I thought I had?
“Howls, man.” He mumbled squinting at me. “You lost weight… are you taller? You seem taller.”
“The right kinda stress’ll do that to ya.” I told him, affixing a smirk on my face. “Not the height thing, that’s just because I’ve lost weight. You probably just think I'm taller, because you’re used seeing how wide I was.” I really hadn't been that overweight, I had been slightly pot bellied, but not obese.
He frowned at me for a moment, obviously considering my words with a degree of skepticism. Which was fair, it was all lies after all. I hadn’t actually put a lot of thought into what I was gonna tell them. I had only remembered on the way over that I needed to tell them something.
“Anyways!” Erik said, waving away the previous conv
ersation. “How are you? Going strong?”
“I'm alright.” I told him. “Val’s been helping a lot. Her and Kani both actually.”
He raised an eyebrow at me, before gesturing for the door into our office, suggesting I should go first. “Val you say?”
“I do believe I did.”
***
Explaining my physical changes to the others were easier, if tiresome. It was all the same questions: “Did you lose weight?” “Did you get surgery done? I swear you’ve gotten taller.” “I like the new hair color, you should keep it.”
That last one actually surprised me. I hadn't really thought about it too much. When I had first gotten into the robot. He’d had a deep shade of dark hair, it was basically black unless you caught it in the right light, then it might seem bluish. By the time I had gotten a chance to reconstruct my face, I had gotten so used to looking tat the new hair color, that I had forgotten to change it back, to my usual dark brunette hair color.
The absolute weirdest part was the job. Though my job was to listen to AIs’, I never actually directly interacted with any. It was all recordings of two AIs interacting with each other.
So despite my Technopathy, nothing about my actual work had changed. I could enter words without clicking the keyboard, or interact with the program without the mouse, but no drastic and sudden boost to my productivity.
I did however find that I had even less patients for my job now than I did before. Back then I could’ve happily gone to work, and been the intermediary between an AI and a private storage facility. Now though, I could hardly stand it. I would only barely be making more money here at the job than I would being a hero. Since most of the money I earned doing hero work was put back into HQ and other such stuff, it didn't seem likely that I would be able to go full time, at any point in the near future.
Unfortunately.
***
I let out a heavy sigh as I stepped out of the office. I had taken a little longer getting finished, that meant the night late team had already arrived, and the day team had left for home. All to avoid anyone seeing where I was going, which was decidedly not home.
Luckily, Erik had been one of the first people to leave today, otherwise he would’ve stuck around, so we could leave together. He’d once said that it built camaraderie, the hard part about disputing that, was how correct he was.
Erik wasn’t just a work friend, despite my best attempts. He was the next best thing to a best friend. The only reason that I hadn't been talking more with Emmet was probably because he knew me too well. Or at least the old me.
If hadn’t ever met Val, and had just gone home from the bank and taken as many days off as I could get, then I really wouldn't want anything to do with work or Erik for a while. I would have to see about ratifying that, but it would have to wait until I had some spare time.
Maybe more time with Erik and Emmet was what I needed to really fix things with Kani, I thought hopefully.
The trip back to headquarters, took just about half an hour when jogging, though it currently did lightly drain my power core. I thought I would’ve mostly recharged by the time I had changed.
Chapter Ninety-Seven
I practically leaped up the stairs when at Headquarters. Alright so maybe I didn’t quite jump up the stairs, it was more like a… quick step… followed by an incredible groan from the wood. Then a bunch of slow steps to make sure that the stairs could actually hold my new weight.
Then it was onwards to wherever I had left my 'suit.' Suit was an overstatement, I hadn't even got a logo, though I wasn't sure I was going to have one of those.
Worse, I hadn’t even decided on a name yet. There had been some friendly discussion. Technosius for example, I had bandied pretty hard for that one for a couple days.
Val had been a staunch defender of Vibratoid. However, she had come up with after getting a closeup ‘examination' from my hand, which made it suspect, to say the least.
Actually, I didn't think this one could. I checked it couldn't. Kani hadn't moved everything over yet. I guess it would just have to wait. Val wasn't going to like that.
I paused, pulling on the shirt as I glimpsed myself in the mirror.
Physically I hadn't changed at all since I had shifted frames, especially now that my skin had grown in. Even the scar on my left forearm had grown back, I assumed I must've accidentally stored the data somewhere since it appeared before I brought it back. It was a long jagged scar that ran a complete circle around my arm.
Madam Mireaux had said, that my arm had practically been amputated when I had been found. I hadn't had any movement in my arm until I was 4. It was another few years of constant therapy before it worked as well as my right arm. I was just lucky that I'm not left-handed, I guess.
But the problem wasn't that my scar had grown back. When I had first fully assimilated into the aluminum frame, it had been a struggle and a half to get the scar to manifest, this time I hadn't even noticed. Odd.
I slipped the shirt on, tightened the belt on my pants, then locked the mask in place.
I calmly walked into the bedroom, out onto the balcony. Is today gonna be the day? I thought, looking over the railing. Next time. Then I lifted first one leg over, then the next. I had just lowered myself when I realized that the fence might not be able to support my body’s new weight.
Tentatively, I let my weight settle on to the railing. It held strong. I let out a sigh of relief, then cautiously lowered myself as far down towards the ground as I could, until I hung from the balcony itself.
My breath sped up for a second before I managed to make my fingers let go. I dropped to the floor. It was only about 120 - 130 centimeters, but it was enough to make my breath catch and heart race.
I didn't like heights okay, sue me. I'm a hero that doesn't like heights, and I've done well so far.
***
I hadn't been out walking the streets in my area for more than a few minutes before I saw someone walking purposefully towards me. He had a child with him, though the kid seemed to be hiding himself behind his father.
The man was of average height. Grey, blue eyes. He had a well cared for a full beard, that was a slightly darker blond than that of his hair. He was in his late twenties, early thirties, wearing a pair of blue jeans and a button up shirt, that had all but the top button closed.
Behind him, hiding what little amount of he could of himself behind what I presumed to be his father’s legs was a little kid. He seemed oddly familiar, though I couldn't quite place him.
I had turned around and stopped walking when I noticed them. They too had stopped walking. So now we were just standing awkwardly in the middle of the street, the occasional passerby walking around us.
I let out a little cough, “Before this gets too awkward, maybe I should introduce myself…” I said. As if that wasn't already too late.
"No, no." The man replied. "It's alright, we already know who you are." Well,. That's a new one, didn't think anyone would ever bring a child to fight a hero.
Just as I started tensing up, getting ready for a fight, the father gestured to the kid attached to his legs. "In fact, you have already helped my son, Arthur."
I instantly felt a little scummy and relaxed, hopefully without being noticed. I crouched down, lowering myself to head height with the child. I took a second, but then I recognized him.
If anything he now seemed more afraid, than when the bully had taken his bike. “Hey kid,” I said, the same way I talked to a Madam Mireaux’s cat, Tinkers, when neighborhood celebrations got too loud. The little thing had always been more afraid than was good for it. “How’s the bike?”
The kid seemed to relax some. I noticed the hands digging into his father's knees relaxing some, and Artur let a little smile onto his face. “It’s great.” He said quietly.
I smiled, I knew he couldn't see it, the mask and everything, but I believed he could hear it in my voice. “That’s awesome.”
He edged around his dad’s legs,
before reaching out to give me something he had clutched in one of his small hands. It was a flash drive. I held my hand out under his, letting him drop it into it.
"What's this ?" I asked, curiously. I examined the drive with my eyes. I didn't probe it immediately with my power since I wanted the kid to have the chance to explain.
Arthur blushed and retreated behind his father, clearly flustered. “It’s alright,” His father, said patting his head. “You can tell him.”
"I made a presentation about you for class," Arthur said so quietly, that it barely registered above a whisper.
"Wow," I replied, just as quietly. I cleared my suddenly thick throat, my suddenly thick speaker, whatever. "That's really nice of you. Thank you." I managed to get out.
