Kaleb’s car was parked, and he was out of it before the sound of the engine dissipated. Claire was right behind him as they entered the Hangar. But while Claire rushed off to get a quick shower and talk to her husband, Kaleb made a beeline for his workshop. There was a general hum in the air as Brute Clan and teenage hunters hurried around the space. Most of them looking like they were on serious missions.
Jar-Lock was in the center of the hangar, talking to Farrah and some of the others. But Kaleb ignored them as he turned into his workshop. He thought he heard Jar-lock shouting something at him, but the door closed. Cutting off the sound from the hangar.
A wave of hot air hit Kaleb as he entered his workshop. Looking around, he found Roy was at the forge with Terrance, while Marie seemed to be sorting his bins. A few of the Brute clan were in the shop, swinging newly made weapons around. Kaleb groaned as he saw the two large lizards chuckling to themselves. They were swinging a pair of maces around dangerously close to Daivor’s small home.
Kaleb quickly raised a hand for attention. But when that didn’t work, he resorted to shouting.
“Okay! Anyone not building something, get the hell out. I have to rebuild my armor and create a new weapon before we attack an army of demon-worshiping idiots. Out!”
The two brute clan lizards stared at him, but hurried out as he clapped his hands at them like children. Kaleb had to almost chase them out of the room as Marie, Terrance, and Roy watched him. He waved them off and put his lab coat on its rack. Grabbing a pen from his workbench, Kaleb began to draw out some ideas as the new forge churned out generic weapons. Roy and Terrance were using molds to create spearheads. He briefly played with the idea of taking a mace, but the added weight would really be a pain.
“We have anymore Kevlar?” Kaleb asked as he sketched out a gun.
“Yeah, Doc. It’s in the bins at the back.” Roy answered.
“What about metal?”
“We have a large amount of scrap and some alloys Daivor and I were playing with. But nothing exotic.”
Kaleb sighed as he finished his gun design and stood up. He found Marie standing behind him, looking over his shoulder. Her curly blond hair was almost matted to her face as she scrunched up her nose at his design.
“What are you making?”
Kaleb sidestepped the young woman and started rummaging through his various piles of boxes and crates. He shouted over his shoulder as his head was buried in a plastic bin.
“I’m giving myself some versatility.”
Kaleb found what he was looking for and pulled everything he could find. Marie continued to watch him as he cradled the crystals in his arms. He moved them to the workbench and placed them on top of his new design. Next, he began the arduous task of separating each of the Elentian crystals by color. They had been thrown loosely in the bin. But he had a fair few of them by now. Marie wandered off as he started arranging them by size. But now he had Roy asking questions.
“Doc, be careful with those crystals. We only have so many.”
“I know. I’ve been meaning to order some, but I’ve been busy.”
“Why do you need them? We’ve got the… y’know, the battery. I think we’re set on powering your weaponry for now.”
Kaleb set his preferred crystals aside as he snorted. “I don’t need them as a power source. I need them for their elemental properties.”
“Ohhhh,” Roy said as he watched Kaleb set several differently colored crystals aside. “Is there anyway I can help?”
“Get the forge ready to build some armor. Mine cracked in a fight with a giant Bull-Man.”
“You mean a Minotaur.”
“Naw, this was a mutant with Minotaur features, but less of a bull-like head.”
“Alright then… which metal should we use? The scrap isn’t going to make the greatest armor, but we can make do.”
“No. Use the last of the alien alloy. I need the best. If I’m going to be forced to make something new, it’s going to be better than what I had.”
“Daivor ain’t going to like that.”
“Oh yeah, go get him to help you. I need to set this up.”
Roy sighed loudly, but hurried to follow his orders. Kaleb, meanwhile, finished what he was doing and got ready to copy his design into the workbench’s system. But as he did, the design was almost immediately rejected. A bright red bar appeared on top of the Workbench’s interface. The words Faulty Design written large in yellow lettering. Biting back a groan of annoyance, Kaleb brought up the design in the system and broke it down.
He wanted a gun with a rotating barrel that could fire each of the crystal’s elemental properties. Fire for red, lightning for yellow, ice for blue, and wind for green. He wasn’t sure what the purple and black crystals would do, but he threw them in for good measure. But the system was rejecting both of the unknown crystals and claiming that he didn’t have enough power to juice everything. It also explained that he would need separate barrels for each crystal and they would need to be reinforced to handle the elemental shots. Kaleb quickly reworked the design to the bench’s specifications, but he was still getting a fault warning. He didn’t have the barrels he needed, so he would need to craft them himself.
He was getting what he needed together when Daivor swung up to the workbench. A stony expression on his face.
“What’s this I hear about you using our metal?”
“I need the alloy for armor, Daivor? Why? What were you using it for?”
“Nothing. But it’s so pretty though, and it needs to go into some great work. That metal is special.”
Kaleb rolled his eyes. “It’s metal, Daivor. Made from the scraps we found at a K-Tech dumpsite. We can get more if we need to.”
The small gnome perked up at that, but he quickly controlled his expression. “So we will be making another supply run, then?”
“Sure. After the demons. Why? Are you looking for something?”
“I’m a Builder Gnome. I’m always looking for new materials to create things. But leave some for the kid, eh? He has been looking forward to crafting some stuff.”
Roy snorted. “Like you haven’t?”
“Don’t sass your elders, boy. Where do you need me, boss?”
Kaleb nodded down at his designs. “Can you help me make the barrels? Roy, you and Terrance get to shaping the armor, please. Just a breastplate is fine and I’ll come in to help when all of this is set up.”
Roy nodded, but Terrance, having heard his name, looked up in shock. The tall boy looked wary as he explained.
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“I haven’t really worked with metal enough to be trusted with such a task.” Terrance said, looking chagrined.
“I can help. My dad’s shown me a lot, and I’d like to learn more.” Marie interjected.
Kaleb nodded. “Fine. Marie, you're shaping with Roy. Terrance, I want you cutting the Kevlar to size. I think my measurements are around here somewhere.”
The tall boy looked relieved as Marie ran over to join Roy. Kaleb had to yell out a reminder not to run in his workshop. But he felt like he was ignored. So instead, he stuck his head back down and got to work.
Other than the separate barrels, he would need a mechanism that spun and locked everything in place. The table was saying it could make one while it was automated, but Kaleb could take the time to shape the pieces himself. The more things he had created by hand, the better the crafting would go once he started the Workbench’s automatic process.
He was deep into crafting the bits of metal for the locking mechanism when his workshop door opened. Jar-Lock poked his head in and Kaleb’s heart stopped. It couldn’t be time to go already. Could it?
Jar-lock chuckled at the face Kaleb was making. “Don’t worry, Prof. We’re not heading out anytime soon. A lot of the team need to take a break and we were about to order food. The teens are screaming about pizza and the lizards are curious enough to try it. What about y’all?”
“Pizza!”
“Pizza?”
“No olives, please.”
“Hell yeah!”
Before Kaleb could answer, three hungry teens and a surprisingly loud gnome were all shouting for food. Kaleb shrugged his shoulders and waved an arm at his workshop.
“It seems like the vote has been cast.”
Jar-lock smiled and nodded, then ducked his head back out of the shop. The room fell into a steady rhythm of work. It was by no means quiet, with Roy and Marie hammering an alien metal into shape. But Kaleb found the noise of his workshop comforting. Even when Daivor started operating the lathe with his magic, and the noise really turned up. Kaleb focused on his own task until he had ground and shaped all the bits of metal he needed.
Once he was done, he assembled all the bits on the workbench and moved to help Daivor. The gnome was hovering over four long pistol barrels. As he got closer, Kaleb realized Daivor was using the Ifrit-bone metal they had mixed a while back. The gnome was now drawing small runes on the sides of the barrels. Kaleb joined in as Daivor explained.
“The bone metal isn’t as tough as the alien alloys we have. But it should handle the force of the Elentian crystals fine.”
“Do we still have bits of the Ifrit lying around?”
Daivor snorted. “Pfft! You’re going to be using that for a long time. I’d put a thin layer of the skin under your armor like you did before.”
Kaleb sighed, but nodded as he drew an intricate rune on the other barrels. He went with a simple toughness rune to help the barrels withstand the energy. Once they finished, Kaleb moved the barrels onto the workbench and submitted the design again. This time it came back green, and he hit the automate button. He really wished he had to time to build the gun from scratch. But he was sure they needed to hurry. Despite what Jar-lock said.
Kaleb let the table whir and work as metal and crystals floated above its surface. Daivor hopped to his shoulder, and they moved over to the forge area. Marie and Roy were hard at work shaping a large piece of blue-black metal into form. Kaleb stopped a short distance away and watched, not wanting to get in the way.
Marie and Roy were taking turns holding and hammering the metal so that the center of the chest piece bulged out a bit. Kaleb waited for the next switch off before he jumped in and started turning and hammering. Daivor watched and advised from his shoulder, so Kaleb sent Roy to prepare the Ifrit skin. The boy shot him a salute as Marie watched him work with what he assumed was admiration.
Once the metal was shaped, Kaleb began smoothing the sides and making minor adjustments to the metal piece. It was a squat triangle shape. Designed to protect his wide shoulders down to his waist. Kaleb felt that the armor was a bit thin in places, but he could reinforce those later if there was time. It was as he was shaping the metal that Jar-lock swung back in with a few pizzas. Kaleb ignored the tantalizing smell as he smoothed out a rough edge. But the kids and Daivor happily dove in with sounds of hunger and pleasure.
Jar-lock moved near Kaleb’s shoulder. “Almost finished?”
“Please don’t tell me everyone is waiting for me.” Kaleb said, sounding exhausted.
“No! No, Two Gun is still asleep and Abby is still healing. Besides, like I said, we won’t be on the move for a while. We have to liaise with another district before we have permission to move.”
Kaleb snorted as he stopped working. “Seriously!? You’re still going to go by the book on this one after we have proof that the HLO and the City are trying to screw us?”
“Hey, the district we are working with is just outside of Austin’s jurisdiction. So they aren’t the ones that screwed us. But don’t worry, the team is pretty much going to vote on releasing your footage. We were waiting for you so we could do an official vote. But we figured…”
“I’d say ‘burn the mothers down?’”
“Something like that.”
“Well, y’all are right. Go release that footage as soon as possible.”
Jar-lock stuck a huge hand out. “Let’s wait until we finish with the Demon mission. Then the Heroes that save Texas will have also uncovered an evil plot involving the HLO and City hall. Our word will carry a little more weight then.”
“Fine…” Kaleb sighed dramatically.
Jar-lock chuckled and patted Kaleb on the shoulder before he left. Kaleb went back to work and ignored the smell of pizza wafting past his nostrils. The faster he went, the quicker he could get a slice. Then again, he was competing against a team of teenagers. Kaleb quickly and carefully put the metal he was working with down. He enjoyed a quick bite from the one pizza that was left standing and then hurried back to work. He set Roy and Terrance on the skin and Kevlar again as Marie helped him shore up the new armor’s weaknesses. Marie seemed to be fairly well-versed in working metal and spotting flaws. Both of which she bragged about at every opportunity.
“You’re not as good as my dad. But you’re pretty good, Y’know. I mean, I think dad would have gone for a bulkier design. But this is also good. Have you ever worked with standard metals, though? A lot of them don’t require the temperatures you are working at. They’re also easier to get into shape. Without your robotic arm, we would’ve had to hammer all day.”
Kaleb nodded along with Marie as she held the piece of metal against his armor with a pair of tongs. He quickly welded the pieces together and then they moved to the next piece. Marie had tried to convince him to add a few ornamental pieces to the armor. But he refused. Instead, he used the flat space of the armor to layer his armor. Carefully and slowly, Kaleb put the pieces of metal together. Once he was done, he stepped back and nodded. He had attempted to layer the armor like an armadillo shell. After a few tests, he found it bent and moved well enough. All he needed now was to get the Kevlar and Ifrit skin underneath it.
He wondered a bit if he had time for leg armor and vambraces. But he shook off the idea. The armor had taken a long time and any new pieces would have to be made from normal metal. Which is not something he wanted.
“Well, it doesn’t look like much. But once you sand the odd bits down, it’ll come together better.” Marie nodded.
Kaleb grinned. “Yeah, so why don’t you start on that end and I’ll take this end?”
Marie snorted and laughed until she realized he was serious. Then she shot him a dirty look and grabbed some sandpaper. Kaleb grabbed his own and started wearing down the edges. Soon, Terrance and Roy joined them. The Kevlar and Ifrit skin in their hands. With a bit of maneuvering, they all started putting the finishing touches on his armor.
Once the armor was shined up and ready, Kaleb dismissed his assistants and started putting the skin and Kevlar in. Daivor joined him as he worked. His cigar puffing out clouds of smoke.
“Not bad for a rush job. You think it’ll help you with the demons?”
“Better than my soft underbelly. Any problems and I can come back and fix it.”
“Just make sure you come back.” Daivor said, looking up at him. “Demons are tricky business, and they can fuck with your mind as easily as your body.”
Kaleb nodded. “I know. But we’ll be fine. If everything goes well, we won’t even have to deal with any actual Demons. Just a bunch of zealots.”
“Yeah, but how often do things go well?”
Kaleb waved the worrying gnome off and continued his work. But a sound from his workbench drew his head up. The bench had been whirring away on his new gun this whole time. It had been pulling in bits and pieces from the workshop as it worked on his design. Kaleb hoped the sound was the bench finally being done. But it seemed that it was just alerting them that it was winding down. A large ball of white light was hovering above the table, bits of metal and wiring floating around it. The white orb pulsed a few times and then exploded in a burst of colors that blinded Kaleb. He shielded his eyes until the rainbow light went away. Then he stood in stunned silence as he approached the workbench. The system had crafted his design down to a T and Kaleb gazed upon his creation in wonder.