The soldering iron touched down, melting the tin and lead alloy, empowering the liquid metal to cover the wire. In seconds, the metal flowed into the cracks and crevices of the connection. Moving the heated tip away, Liam waited. Watching as the liquid metal solidified before his eyes. In moments the connection was solid, as if it’d been like that for years. A small tug from Liam confirmed it wasn’t moving anytime soon.
Pulling away from his fix, Liam looked over the device. The main metal body was open. The electrical innards a maze of red, blue, and green wires. The map of connections was something his mind could read, like the written word. Its secrets laid bare to him.
On the exterior corners of the main body were eight propellers. Each one with a cage around the blade for protection. As much to prevent them from hitting Liam, as for the Hero damaging them with an unintended movement.
To the sides of the machine were spindly appendages. The multi jointed things coming off like extendo arms, not like the thick ones on Bank-Breaker’s inventions. Yet they weren’t anything to look down on. There was a sturdiness to them their shape didn’t portray. The gadgets hidden at their ends drove the point home.
Liam moved his magnifying goggles away from the machine’s still open chest and took in the full view. The wires, propellers, arms, all of what was in front of him flashed into his mind. His keen eye matched what was in his head and what was on the table. Merging the image his power had provided with what his hands had created. With each part, the two images combined until they were one and the same.
Humming his confirmation, Liam closed the hatch and screwed it shut. His work on the machine nearing an end.
With the machine latched up, Liam pulled up a screen and checked the rest of its settings. Making sure it was ready for the tests that were coming next. Reaching the last item, footfalls from behind Liam put that task on hold.
Touching his foot to the ground, Liam pushed off. The small force all it took to spin his chair around. Rotating into his view was Wire, standing in the doorway to his workshop. One of her hands grasping her other arm’s elbow as she looked in.
“Need someone to talk to?” she asked when their eyes met.
“I’m working on the robots,” Liam said. Not answering her question.
Wire looked at the workbench in front of Liam. Her eyes lit up as they caught sight of the only thing in the otherwise barren white table.
“How’s it going? When will they be ready?” Wire asked as she moved forward. Breaching the barrier of Liam’s workshop and tarnishing his isolation like it’d never been there.
“Just finishing the last look over. After that, we’re ready for the first full systems test.”
“Can I watch?”
Liam wanted to say no, to kick her out of the room, but thought better of it. She was his teammate. He had to remember that and act accordingly. Plus, she’d already made it to his workbench. If he’d caught her at the door, it’d be a much more reasonable request. Now, there was no getting rid of her.
“I think this is a great chance for you to test them out. You’ll be using them after all,” Liam said.
Accepting that Wire was more than just an observer today and relinquishing control of the machine’s first test to her. It wasn’t ideal, but she’d be controlling them long term. Might as well have her gain comfort and experience in a controlled environment like this.
Wire’s eyes sparked as she looked at him, forcing Liam to turn back to the machine on the table.
“What do you need from me?” Wire asked.
“One second,” Liam said as he ran through the last items of his checklist. Satisfied with what he saw, he picked up the robot and moved it to the center of the empty space. Twenty feet from any obstruction.
There, Liam set the robot down. It teetered on its four stilt legs before settling down. Liam hurried away.
“Can you take control of it?” Liam asked as he sat back down in his chair. Pushing a button on the side of the desk, a protective screen rose in front of the two Heroes. He didn’t think anything would go wrong, but it was never a bad idea to be prepared.
Wire’s eyebrow rose at the barrier, but she said nothing. When Liam didn’t rise to the bait, she turned back to the machine, as if of its own accord, the robot’s arm twitched. Then it moved forward. The digits at the end opened and closed. Liam leaned forward as the other arm followed suit. The two appendages spun for a second before they went into a mock salute.
“Done.”
“Great, now can you activate the propellers?” Liam asked. Trying to suppress the urge to laugh at the little display. “Leave the power low enough it doesn’t take off.”
Wire nodded as she turned on the propellers. The robot twitched on its tiny legs, but stayed on the ground.
“Like this?”
“Exactly,” Liam said. Pulling over a touchpad. Liam opened up the systems screen of the little robot and poured over the readings. Everything looked good. No, beyond good, things were going great.
“Up the power a little,” Liam said, sliding to the edge of the chair.
Wire complied, and the robot took off. Hovering an inch off the ground. Then two. Then it was airborne for real as it reached two feet into the air.
“Perfect, now-” Liam started only to be cut off as the robot’s arm moved and sent the robot teetering to the side.
Seeing what was happening, Liam realized his mistake. He hadn’t considered how the robot’s arms moving would change its center of gravity. The drones he’d used as a base for this creation didn’t have arms and thus didn’t have to worry about the issue. He’d have to change the coding for this one. He could use the propeller’s thrust to do that, by marrying the center of gravity and the propeller’s output. With that, the machine could take to the air for real.
While Liam was thinking through what would come next, the robot had spun upside down and bolted into the ground. The sound of metal screeching against the tiled floor echoed through the room.
“I’m sorry!” Wire exclaimed. Rushing around the barrier, she raced to the robot and flipped it over. Her eyes and hands going over it, looking for any damage. Something Liam would be much better at.
“This is great data. We want to use these test flights to find issues. This one was staring me in the face and I missed it. Now that we found it, I can fix it.”
Wire’s roving hands stopped as she turned back to him.
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“Oh, okay. Glad I could help.”
A pungent smell of burnt oil reached Liam’s nose. Well, he’d have to fix that as well. He’d been hoping the crash hadn’t damaged the machine itself. But that was too much to hope for.
A silence grew between the two. Liam typing away, cataloguing everything he’d witnessed while Wire watched. Her hands still fiddling with the little robot.
“About what happened at the trial,” Wire said as the silence pushed her to speak.
“I don't want to talk about it,” Liam cut in. Trying to stop that line of discussion before it got out of hand.
“You might not want to, but it’s good for you.”
Spinning in his chair, Liam stared down his teammate. He could see the steel in her eyes. She wasn’t going to take no for an answer. Maybe he could distract her, another test flight. No, she’d already done one and would shut down another until he had a fix for the issues they’d found. What else could he try? Liam wracked his brain, but failed to find anything to use. Accepting his inevitable fate, Liam sighed and nodded for her to continue.
“I’m sure it was hard for you to stand there with H-Bar in the room. Knowing he was one of the first people you’d trusted in the Hero world.”
“He accepted responsibility. I didn’t have to say anything. I could’ve stayed here and nothing would’ve changed.”
“That’s not how I heard it went down. The news report said he saw you and changed his mind. Your mere presence was enough to cow him.”
“They exaggerate,” Liam said. His mind going back to when he’d captured H-Bar’s gaze in the courtroom. Knowing there was something to what Wire was saying.
“You did a good thing. I can’t imagine how hard that must’ve been.”
“Just part of the job. Nothing difficult about it,” Liam said. Looking back down at the screen and the information that no longer seemed important.
“Well, at least it’s done.”
“It’s not done,” Liam cut in. His words hot as his mind flared.
Wire opened her mouth, then closed it. Her eyes wide as they looked at him like they’d never seen each other before. The words hadn’t even left his mouth before Liam regretted saying them.
“I’m sorry,” Liam said. “It’s just, not over yet. I still have Gladius and Ullr’s trials. And then there’s Skip, if we ever find him.”
“It’s alright. With everything going on, there is a lot of pressure on you,” Wire said as she fell back into a composed state. Her face, a mask of what was going on in her head. “The next trials will go the same way and be a breeze for you.”
“I doubt it. H-Bar is one thing. The others are a different beast.”
“Okay, it might not be easy, but you’ll make it through and if you ever need anything, our team is here for you.”
A voice from the hallway interrupted the two. Liam thanking his lucky stars for any chance to cut this talk short.
“Source, can I borrow you for a meeting?” Nudge asked from the doorway.
“Sure, what’s up?” Liam asked.
“Status meeting. It’s going to be annoying, but you can help us get what we want. Sorry for taking him in the middle of your work,” Nudge said as he turned to Wire, nodding at the robot.
“Don’t worry about it. Have fun at the meeting,” she said as she moved towards the door. “We can come back to this later.”
Liam liked to think they wouldn’t, but decided it’d be easier not to make that point. And sometimes the easier route is the better one.
“If only it would be fun,” Nudge muttered as they left. Liam trailing on the man’s heels.
Reaching an office, Nudge ushered Liam inside, then closed the door behind them. Sitting in the center seat, the man motioned Liam to follow his lead. Taking the seat to the right, Liam sat down and glanced at the camera in front of them.
Before they checked into the meeting, Nudge turned and gave Liam a look over. “Masks on for this one,” he said as Nudge pulled out two nondescript grey masks.
The two donned their disguises as Liam asked, “Wouldn’t it be easier for me to go back and grab my suit?”
“No time for that, we’re late already. Plus, wearing these isn’t a big deal. Everyone does it when they can’t wear their normal uniforms.”
Liam nodded as Nudge fiddled with his mask. The man’s nose got stuck in the mask’s mouthpiece for a disconcerting amount of time. When he finally had the mask on correctly, Nudge continued.
“Regardless of what happens, let me do the talking.”
“Ok,” Liam said. It wasn’t like he had any ambition to talk in a meeting like the one Nudge was describing. He was all too happy to sit back and let the other man take the lead.
After getting an affirmative, Nudge turned back to the camera and switched it on. The red light next to the lens bloomed and the screens behind the camera came to life.
There were dozens of Heroes on them. Their peacocking of colors made it clear this wasn’t just one team.
On each screen was a famous Hero. One’s Liam would’ve only hoped to see in his childhood dreams, let alone talk to all at once. Nudge’s command not to speak cast a shadow on what would’ve been a great opportunity for him.
“We’ve been waiting,” the woman at the center of the display said.
Platinum Dutchess, Liam noted. Her outfit was clear from the commercials. Though now she gave off the feeling of control that the commercials could never duplicate.
“Sorry, forgot the time,” Nudge said with a casual wave. “Hope you didn’t have to wait long.”
“Nearing half an hour,” a female Hero said.
“Forgot the time…” another interjected from the side of the screen. This one draped in blue and red. His outfit screamed style, with the precise fold and padding it contained. The idea of a knight in shining armour came to Liam. Something he found all too unsettling with their line of work.
“Don’t worry about it,” the first woman said. Her voice was tight and constrained. Liam could almost feel the effort she was putting in to keep in control, even through the screen.
“This is how you run The Watch? I’d have expected better from the Platinum Dutchess,” the pristine Hero said.
There was a second where Liam could swear a vein was pulsing on the forehead of the leader of The Watch. Even though her mask covered every trace of it.
“What have you learned, Nudge?” Platinum Dutchess asked, in what Liam assumed was a way to draw everyone back in.
“Not much yet. We still have our ear to the ground, but it looks like Bank-Breaker is staying out of sight.”
That broke the woman’s composure.
“We still don’t know who is behind this,” she said. Her tone turned sharp.
“But-”
“We can talk about that later. For now, we don’t assume Bank-Breaker is involved.”
“Regardless of who is doing this, we have to work to solve it. With so many casualties I’m not sure The Watch should lead the search,” a Hero with a strong French accent and dazzling blue costume said.
“With all due respect, Blue Eclipse, France has only seen seven citizens involved. You are welcome to take part in this work, but American teams will lead the way.”
“And allow more of our citizens to die?” Blue Eclipse asked as he sat up.
“If we all work together, we will prevent the next attack.”
“There wouldn’t have been the last attack if we were in charge from the start.”
The conversation devolved from there. Most of the Heroes spent their time bickering over who would lead the task force, as they’d started calling themselves. Leaving Nudge and Liam to observe. All but forgotten by the others.
The entire experience reminded Liam of The Hunt’s feelings towards multi team meetings. They were a waste of time. And for once Liam had to agree with his former team.
When the meeting finally ended, all that’d been decided was the task force had to meet again tomorrow. Everyone else on the call seemed to think they’d get more done then. Liam was left wondering if this was what it was like for people in the rest of the world. Going to meetings one after another for them to lead to nothing more than additional meetings.
“Well, that went better than I expected,” Nudge said as the screen faded to black.
“That was better?” Liam asked, trying to see if Nudge was joking or not.
“Yeah, they were so into chest puffing that they didn’t bother to tell us to stop. Who could be mad at us now if we keep working with those conditions?”
“Would you have stopped even if they asked?”
“Clearly no. But it’s best to avoid possible arguments like that. At least for now.”
Liam nodded, knowing that inter team dynamics would never be his strong suit.
“If they had tried to push us off, how would you have stopped them?”
“That’s why you were here. The public would eat alive whichever Hero kicked you off the case.”
“So I was a prop?” Liam asked, unsure if that should annoy him.
“A darn good one.”