trans_9 | Mad Scientist In The Making

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Mad Scientist In The Making

Nate had gotten his armor back from Stacy. The initial elation had slowly given way to a very businesslike examination of the suit's use however, following a troubleshooting session in the City. It seemed that Stacy had locked down the suit's time travel capabilities. So that meant he wouldn't be going anywhere, and he wouldn't be pulling weapons out of the time stream either. A few of the deadlier weapons in the suit itself had been disabled. But he'd be able to get those back up and running.

The thing that he had most wanted to know however, was whether the Vision programming was present. Running through his checklists and looking through the programming ands source codes of the armor's minimal AI system, he was soon satisfied that his suit wouldn't be walking around on it's own anytime soon. Good. One less headache for him. Something he was thankful for, what with the way his head had been pounding recently. That being said he didn't want to be walking around in that suit at the moment. At least, not while it was looking like that.

So it was that he ended up in the Special Weapons area, various tools littering the table next to the larger one that he'd laid the suit out on. First things first, he'd need to get rid of that helmet. He didn't want his face hidden, not anymore at least. So he worked for an hour or so at pulling the components from the helmet and incorporating them into the suit. Of course, for the HUD he'd need to find an alternate method. Perhaps he could rig up a retinal projector keyed to his DNA? Well, time enough for that later.

The sound of clinking and fiddling could be heard for a long time. His eyes began to grow tired as he kept working. How many hours had it been? Didn't matter, he had his suit. He needed to finish. Now that fusion cell connected to that power cable. And that ion regulator into that outlet. Yes it was going fine. Picking up another fusion cell, he grabbed his screwdriver and began to unscrew the cap. Hopefully the gel hadn't congealed after disuse, or else it might--

BOOM

The cell exploded in a great spray of coolant gel and metal parts. One sliver of metal ran a cut along his cheek, and he was glad he'd had the foresight to put goggles on, as others pinged off the protective eyewear. Setting down his screwdriver, he pulled the goggles off, a bemused expression crossing his face as he lifted a hand to wipe the gel off it. His hair stuck out at odd angles from the release of static the exploding fusion cell had caused, and he sighed, rubbing at his eyes.

Maybe that was enough for one night.

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Nate just kept quite for a moment, before reaching out to take her hand gently. "It's normal to miss people you love when they're gone. Everyone has their own coping mechanisms. It isn't fair to stop you, if that's what you need. Maybe going back after promising them not too wasn't too good a move. But then, you shouldn't have had to make a promise like that in the first place."

He spoke quietly, gently. Most of all, understandingly.

Cassie looked back at Nate, eyes wide. "You're not- you don't think I'm crazy for doing that? Or not healthy or-" She just stared. "You actually understand?"

He nodded, he'd been doing the same thing that day she'd given him his memories back after all. "Of course I understand." He squeezed her hand gently. "It isn't easy to let go sometimes."

"No, it's not." Cassie squeezed Nate's hand back. "Every time there's a podpop I look for him. I figure at some point..." She trailed off.

"It's possible. And to stop looking is to stop hoping. And we can't stop hoping. Cause after all the fighting is done with, hope's all we have left." He smiled gently, pulling her close to draw her into a hug. "It'll be okay."

Hugging was good. In fact, hugging was more than good. Everything felt so much better when Nate held her.

"Thanks."

His arms slid easily around her, as if she was the part that had been missing all along. Smiling to himself, he held her lose, hands moving to stroke her hair gently.

"Anytime, Cassie."

Cassie wasn't in any hurry to pull away but eventually (eventually) she did. She smiled. "We should go eat." Again, she touched Nate's hair. "You still look like a mad scientist. Or Einstein."

He didn't mind. As long as she felt better, that was all that really mattered. Returning her smile, he scrunched his nose again as his stomach rumbled. "That would probably be a good idea." That got a laugh. "How about an Einstein level, mad scientist? I could live with that."

"Just don't go all evil genius on me." Cassie said, taking Nate's arm. "Let's go."

"I'll do my best." He patted her hand gently as they set off.

It surely wasn't a lavish meal. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and cold water on the Obs Deck wasn't exactly gourmet dining. But the making of the meal was fun. And the company was enjoyable. The view from the Obs Deck wasn't all that great, but it was a nice place to relax, and really, half the time, Nate hadn't been trying to see out he had other things to look at.

Leaning back against the puffy couch, he let out a satisfied sigh. "Having real food is really awesome."

"You're telling me. Sometimes there's nothing like the real thing. Especially when it comes to Stacy's slop. I don't even want to think about what goes into that." If she was aware of the irony of those words coming out of her mouth she didn't show it.

"You got that right. I can't understand how I could eat her slop for so long. Ugh." Nate, if he thought about it, would have seen the irony. But he didn't feel like killing the mood. So he didn't think too hard on her words. For the moment. "Did you get enough? I think there's still one left."

"No, I'm watching my girlish figure." She paused then grinned. "Just kidding, we can split it if you're still hungry."

He was about to say something about how she could grow and shrink at will, but at her grin, he couldn't help but shake his head with a laugh. "Sure thing." Ripping the sandwich in half, he handed the her the bigger piece with a grin.

"Thanks." Of course food wouldn't have been an issue if she were with Jonas. She took a bite out of the sandwich. "So other than working on your armor, what all have you been doing? Still meditating?"

"You're welcome." True. But sharing food was like...essential in any relationship. You just can't trust someone until you've eaten with them. Nate's half was gone pretty quickly. He ate fast, just a bad habit of his. "I've been running combat simulations in the Sensoriums in imaginary armor of course. But it works about the same. It keeps me busy, you know? What about you?"

~~Making out with your former armor.~~ "Fooling around with gadgets, which you just saw and keeping up with my training, not to mention adding to it. They never let me use the really cool weapons in the Initiative. Here, on the other hand..."

~~Other than that too, obviously.~~ "The Initiative." He'd missed a lot Cassie. "You mean the program from the Superhero Civil War? They... you joined them?"

"Yeah, didn't think you knew about that." She took another bite out of her sandwich so she didn't have to say more right away. "I though it made sense, people should be held accountable for what they do. Maybe if they had it earlier the Scarlet Witch wouldn't have... And I trusted Iron Man." Another bite. "None of the other Young Avengers did."

"It's part of our history lessons in school. One of my favourite eras." He gave her the time she needed to think. But really he wouldn't have joined the Initiative. Not knowing what they'd cost others. "I know, but I mean, the way Iron Man ran things. I know he's who I model myself after, but Captain America died because of him. And he was locking away innocents in a N-Zone prison camp, without trial or hope for appeal."

A pause. "And of course none of the guys trusted him! He lied to us and locked us in a room at Avengers Mansion so he could rat you guys out to your parents!"

"Cap did not die because of him he died because someone- not Tony- shot him. And he wasn't going to put them there forever. I'm not saying he didn't fuck things up and that I didn't expect a lot more from him but I didn't become Stature to fight other super heroes. I did it because I wanted to save lives." Cassie tried to keep herself from yelling but it was hard. This was definitely a bit of a sore spot.

He kept his voice level. Not cold or threatening like he'd done before. But simply calm, gentle almost. "I'm not blaming Iron Man fro everything. There was definitely fault on both sides. But if he hadn't chased the superheroes like that, Cap wouldn't have been in handcuffs that day. He wouldn't have been a sitting duck for that sniper."

He raised a hand to her shoulder gently. "I'm sorry. When you learn about these things in a classroom you think you know who was right and who was wrong. But I can't imagine what it must have been like to go through it. ...I'm sorry I wasn't there to help."

"It's-" Cassie pressed a hand to her face, rubbing her forehead. "It's all right I just get- it was so frustrating to watch. None of it had to happen and I didn't want-" To die. To be sent to jail. To think that wherever he was that her father might be disappointed in her. "I'm not going to argue that Tony- Stark did a lot of dumb things. I know that first hand."

"I can only imagine. I'm sorry. I'm not in any position to comment. I mean, I wasn't there, I can't know what it was like. Can we talk about something else now?" He really didn't want to talk about the problems the superhero community had gone through while he'd been gone. He didn't want to talk about them at all to be honest.

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