trans_9 | Unicorns Take To The Skies [open]

Welcome, visitors, to the Hangar, storage place of all the crew's marvelous mecha and other vehicular machines. We have rows of automobiles, motorcycles, trucks, tanks, mechs...and the small group of mechs that doesn't quite seem to fit in a military storage area. Today the activity is around those, the Zords, animal-shaped machines painted in a variety of eye-catchingly bright colors. Sure to intimidate the Ohm!

The mechanic of these large machines, one Billy Cranston, has been assigned a daunting task taking place within this hangar. Make them capable of combat outside the atmosphere of a planet. In the great void of space.

Now, Billy is very lucky, for two of the six are already prepped for this! That's one third less work than he would otherwise have, Billy reminded himself as motivation. Adding flight capabilities to four very large mechs was still a challenging task, but it could definitely be worse.

He'd learned from Trudy that it would be a wise idea to put his plans into motion (and complete them) as quickly as possible. Luckily, the initial designs and supply-gathering had already been completed. That just left him (and any volunteering assistants) to install the necessary rockets within the Zords. One night of continuous work had resulted in the completion of the Lion Thunderzord---under the paws, he'd found convenient places to install rockets. All he needed was a round of coffee, and he'd be able to get through one more.

Visitors would find him kneeling on a fairly long temporary high platform attached to the Unicorn Thunderzord, sporting a sleeveless mechanic's uniform and a coating of sweat and grease. One 'wing' of the zord had had its paneling removed, and his head was currently somewhere inside that mass of machinery running the new wiring through.

It might take a try or two for him to answer calls or come down the ladder. Sounds tend to echo when your head's in a giant unicorn.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Andy smiled as he made it to the hanger, seeing Billy working on his zord. He moved over to it. Hopefully he'd be able to at least be some decent help here...

"Hey."

By that point, Billy had eaten. He wasn't quite energetic, not without the coffee, but he did feel better and more attentive.

Hearing the sound, he pulled his head out of the Zord and peered down. Ah, Andy.

"Hey Andy," he called down from his loft, starting on the ladder. "I'm actually moving to work on the rear panel now, you're just in time."

Andy grinned at that, moving closer to where Billy was. "Alright then. Just let me know what you need me to do!"

"We're going to swing the platform around to the rear and adjust it," Billy explained on the way down, pausing to stretch when he reached the ground. "It's not difficult with the help we have," he gestured to the tentacles suspending it, "but it requires some direction. Just stand across from me."

He shuffled over to the rear corner of the Zord and extended his hands upward, pulling on a string in his hand. "Just pull on the other one!"

Andy nodded, moving over to where Billy told him and grabbing at the other string. "Alright!"

And he started to pull.

Success! They pulled it over, the ladders on either side now in place.

"Then we're free to climb up." And Billy started doing just that after making sure his tools were properly in place.

Andy smiled, waiting until after Billy was finished climbing up to start climbing up the ladder himself.

Billy had his tools out and was already working out the rear panel when Andy arrived. He gestured for some help with sliding it off, then began his explanation. "This is going to be a fairly simple modified rocket design. Your world had rockets, right?"

Andy nodded. "Yeah, we did. I... well, never really looked up much about rockets. I'm mean, I was interested in space and stuff when I was a kid, but well... yeah."

"So was I, actually," Billy smiled widely once the plate was off, beginning the long process of untangling the wires in their way. "This part's easy, just undo the tangles," he advised as an aside.

He closed his eyes, remembering his childhood drawings. "I used to pour all my energy after school into making guesses at what might be out here. I was ecstatic to discover aliens as a teenager---most of them were hostile invaders, unfortunately, but I did befriend one and help him repair his ship."

It was a whimsical memory, so far from what they faced now. "Don't worry. You don't need to know rocket science to lend a hand."

Andy nodded, moving over to start untangling the wires. "That's good, because I have no idea where to begin with that."

He smiled a bit more. "So... how was it when you first woke up here? On Stacy, I mean."

"To tell you the truth? It was...lonely," Billy whispered when he finally chose his word. "The ship community wasn't quite like it is now. It was so early on that we didn't even have formal departments or a laboratory set up, we didn't yet know that our worlds had been destroyed, and everything seemed to be in a confused state."

He paused to stroke his Zord fondly, cheering when their untangling efforts finally started to expose the core they needed to hook into. "We'll be plugging into this," he noted before continuing on.

"Back then, all I knew was that Stacy was restricting access to my morpher. I didn't yet know that the Command Center was here, or that the zords and my car had been salvaged. In short...I believed I was completely alone in the universe. Almost everyone from those days has been repodded by now, actually, but I think I finally have a stable group. And I'm grateful for it."

In short: you're awesome, Andy, thanks for being here. Billy's face says it all.

Andy nodded as he listened to Billy, still untangling the wires they needed. He blinked as he heard the part about the Morpher though. "Why... why couldn't you use the morpher? And... it's kinda sad to hear that everyone from back then is gone."

Billy looked down at the morpher on his belt, running his finger over the familiar object. "Back then, Stacy was run on a prison AI system. Anyone who had powered uniforms like ours had the suits confiscated, held in the armory until it was time for a mission. Since we freed her original AI, though, we've been allowed to keep our items."

He disappeared down the ladder to bring up a part he'd forgotten on the ground, calling out a hurried "I'll be right back!" as he went. It was...odd to think about. That time before the bridge fight felt so long ago. Of the people he talked to back then, he was fairly sure only Kaya was still around.

After two minutes, Billy had successfully hauled the core attachment up the ladder. He gave Andy some quick instructions for installing this part (it's easy!) and then continued.

"The thing is...I can hardly remember anything about those people. Our memories were edited more thoroughly back then. But I'm glad I have what I do now. It's great to have a team again," he smiled at Andy, slotting one of the first parts into place.

"How are you holding up?"

Andy nodded, following Billy's instructions and doing what he said. Finding out about the whole prison ship thing was... not very comforting. To say the least. Still, that was in the past, after all. It was a good thing Billy had handled that alright though.

"I'm... doing okay I guess. Still hoping that my mom or sister will wake up next time, but well, I could be handling it a lot worse all things considered."

Unicorns Take To The Skies [open]

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