Heroic

by H D Forth

  I smiled slipping a hand around her waist and pulling her slightly closer to me. "Thank you." I slipped my hand a little lower letting it rest on her hip, "it's always nice to know that you've got my back."

  “Mmhhm.” She before speeding up, running lightly down the stairs and slipping from my arm. I stared after her speculatively, then followed her along.

  I found her downstairs already calling for a car to come and pick us up. "Hi," I said, walking towards her.

  She turned towards me, her face neutral. On a hunch, I decided to deviate from what I originally intended to ask her. "Back at the workshop or do you have your own little thing somewhere else in the city."

  "The workshop," She replied curtly. Her response immediately caught my attention, something was wrong. The key to communication was to communicate. Madam Mireaux had taught me this, and I had learned from repeated experience that she was smarter than me. That might've been one of the single most important things she had ever told me.

  "What's the matter?" I asked, stepping closer to her, using one had to cup her face and make her look at me. "You suddenly started acting strange, are you okay? You won't get pregnant from what we did."

  She snorted out a genuine laugh, but still pulled her head out of my hand. “I hadn't even thought about that.”

  “Then what is the problem?” I asked, more intently this time, my emotions starting to get the better of me. I tried making eye contact with her, but she pulled even further away, not looking at me.

  A sudden burst of frustration rose in me. I was unable to understand what was going on, and it was getting to me. “Please just tell me?” I pleaded, though my voice was harsher than I intended.

  “I…” She said slowly, her face turning white as I watched. She seemed to consider her words carefully for a moment, before shutting her mouth. Then her phone beeped, the car had arrived. She quickly turned away from me and fled out of the door.

  I gave her a moment before following behind. I was clenching my jaw, trying to keep my own emotions under control. I don’t know why it bothered me so much, but it hurt that she didn't want to talk to me.

  She had just managed to close the door behind her when I exited Headquarters. “Do you still want me to come along?” I send after Connecting with the speakers of the car.

  As she considered I stepped up to the door. I waited, counting down slowly in my mind as the seconds passed by. While I waited, tried to use my Foundation to steady my emotions, I wasn't too far out yet, I might still get control over them. My bunker again failed to contain my feelings, and I instead had to count a fake breath to calm myself.

  I had almost reached sixty when something in the door clicked open and slid out a little bit. Carefully, controlling my movements to hide my emotions, I pulled the door open and got in besides Kani.

  She had already entered the address and gotten the car ready, the moment I entered and got the seatbelt on the car set off. I glanced at her from out the edge of my perspective. She was very carefully not looking at me. Almost her entire body was turned away from me, as she looked out the window.

  “It’s fine,” I managed to say, though it was a bit halted. “You don't have to talk about it.” She didn't turn to me, she didn't even acknowledge me.

  I clenched my fist, hiding it from her as to not show her how much she got to me. It was weird, petty, but I didn't want her to know how much it hurt. I barely knew her, why would I care whether she thought I was an asshole or not. So long as we could both keep doing what we set out to do, and get along without clawing at each other, then whatever.

  Just whatever.

  Chapter Eighty-Six

  The day ended up being shit.

  We spend the next hour on the couch, all snuggled up under blankets watching TV. Then Kani went to take a shower, which lead to Val and I trying to break the bed before she came out, though I suspected Kani watched I didn’t actually see her at any point until after we finished.

  After that, I did a quick bird bath in the sink with a wash cloth, since I still wasn't wholly waterproof and their sweat had gotten on me in significant amounts.

  Out int the bedroom again, we found Val lounging completely nude. Some of my release was still visible around her pussy as she stretched. She looked like the cat that had caught the fattest and most delicious mouse, and was now happily basking in the sun.

  “You go do what you need to,” She said, sensually. “I'm not moving an inch.” As she said it, she stretched, arching her back. Her taut nipples pointing straight into the air, as her body tensed with the stretch.

  “I could really use some help.” Kani mumbled, though neither of us were able to draw out gazes away from the spectacle.

  “Sure.” I replied, reluctantly looking away from both beauties and heading for the hallway. I might not be able to leave if I didn't get away now.

  “What do you need help with?” I asked, as we escaped into the hallway.

  “Well,” She said. her voice sounded like distracted, like she was moving down a to-do list in her mind. She raked her fingers through her hair, gathering it into a ponytail before answering. “There’s a lot of welding equipment that needs to be moved, much of it is too heavy for me to move alone, other than that lots of small knick knacks. Oh and your steel frame as well, its coming along quite nicely by the way, might be finished a little sooner than anticipated.”

  I smiled slipping a hand around her waist, and pulling her slightly closer to me. “Thank you.” I slipped my hand a little lower letting it rest on her hip, “its always nice to know that you’ve got my back.”

  “Mmhhm.” She before speeding up, running lightly down the stairs and slipping from my arm. I stared after her speculatively, then followed her along.

  I found her downstairs already calling for a car to come pick us up. “Hi.” I said, walking towards her. She turned towards me, her face neutral. On a hunch I decided to deviate from what I originally intended to ask her. “Back at the workshop or do you have your own little thing somewhere else in the city.”

  “The workshop,” She replied curtly. Her response immediately caught my attention, something was wrong. The key to communication was to communicate. Madam Mireaux had taught me this, and I had learned from repeated experience that she was smarter than me. That might’ve been one of the single most important things she had ever told me

  “Whats the matter?” I asked, stepping closer to her, using one had to cup her face and make her look at me. “You suddenly started acting strange, are you okay? You wont get pregnant from what we did.”

  She snorted out a genuine laugh, but still pulled her head out of my hand. “I hadn't even thought about that.”

  “Then what is the problem?” I asked, more intently this time, my emotions starting to get the better of me. I tried making eye contact with her, but she pulled even further away, not looking at me. I sudden burst of frustration rose in me. I was unable to understand what was going on, and it was getting to me. “Please just tell me?” I pleaded, though my voice was harsher than I intended.

  “I…” She said slowly, her face white as snow. She seemed to consider her words carefully for a moment, before shutting her mouth. Then her phone beeped, the car had arrived. She quickly turned away from me and fled out of the door.

  I gave her a moment before following behind. I was clenching my jaw, trying to keep my own emotions under control. I don’t know why it bothered me so much, but it hurt that she didn't want to talk to me.

  She had just managed to close the door behind her, when I exited Headquarters. “Do you still want me to come along?” I send after Connecting with the speakers of the car.

  As she considered I stepped up to the door. I waited , counting down slowly in my mind as the seconds passed by. While I waited, tried to use my Foundation to steady my emotions, I wasn’t too far out yet, I might still get control over them. My bunker still failed to contain my emotions and I instead had to count a fake breath to calm myself.

 
; I had almost reached 60, when something in the door clicked open and slid out a little bit. Carefully, controlling my movements to hide my emotions, I pulled the door open and got in beside her.

  She had already entered the address and gotten the car ready, the moment I entered and got the seatbelt on the car set off. I glanced at her from out the edge of my perspective. She was very carefully not looking at me. Almost her entire body was turned away from me, as she looked out the window.

  “It’s fine,” I managed to say, though it was a bit halted. “You don't have to talk about it.” She didn't turn to me, she didn't even acknowledge me.

  I clenched my fist, hiding it from her as to not show her how much she got to me. It was weird, petty, but I didn't want her to know how much it hurt. I barely knew her, why would I care whether she thought I was an asshole or not. So long as we could both keep doing what we set out to do, and get along without clawing at each other, then whatever.

  Just whatever.

  Chapter Eighty-Seven

  By the time we arrived at her workshop, I had cooled down severely. I now felt ashamed at my response, though I still couldn't get myself to tell her how much it hurt. Instead, I turned it into the brisk energy of acting like nothing had happened.

  "Alright," I said, forcing a cheerful tone as I entered behind her. "What's the first thing we've gotta get?"

  She turned to look at me strangely, for a moment she almost looked me in the eye. Then she turned away, though I thought she didn't look as cold as she had when I had entered the car. Nothing like a few minutes to calm someone down.

  She pointed towards what looked to be a rather large and sturdy box. I walked over to it. “This one?” I asked her, she nodded. She even managed to look me, if not in the eye, then in the face. “That’ll be easy!” I told her, giving her my best winning smile, though the fake cheer felt weird.

  What I didn't know was that this box contained all the unassembled and raw material that was needed for my new frame. Plus all the equipment necessary for Kani to shape it and put it together.

  Let me tell you one thing about metal, it can be quite heavy even for someone like me, who is objectively quite strong. I bend down grabbing the for the edges of the box, I didn't think form mattered if you're a robot. Half robot… half cyborg. Part man, part android. Mandroid. Whatever didn't matter.

  I grunted heaved and pulled myself face down into the box.

  And with a great toll, a bang did sound…

  I had of course known that metal was heavy, without ever being to exact about the measurements. In my unbridled brilliance, I had gone for the: Rather act too manly and throw the heavy metal box up and over my shoulder, instead of slowly struggle to lift it off the ground. So sue me, I wanted to show off in front of the girl who was seemingly rejecting me.

  For a moment I started to feel a pang of fear, but I repressed it ruthlessly to let it fester for some other time where I thought it was more convenient to let one of my all-consuming childhood fears overtake me. I didn’t want to have a break down in front of Kani.

  What I did instead was, I pulled hard enough, with entirely the wrong leverage and ended up headbutting the box with my face. What that did was leave a near exact facial imprint onto the box, make a huge racket and stun me for a moment as all my prediction for a moment went entirely off course.

  I slowly gathered my wits sitting next to the box, my one camera having trouble focusing until I strengthened my connection to the Nerve Module again. I blinked a few times making sure I hadn't damaged it. There was still a soft tingling in the air from my disaster of showmanship. Except it wasn't the sound of metal ringing, it was the sound of light female laughter.

  "Well, I'm happy that my misery can give you something to laugh about," I grumbled. I wanted to be angry that the woman who had rejected me was laughing at me, but her laughter was simply too sweet and too pure for me.

  "Need help there big guy?" She asked, mirth still evident in her voice. She had walked over to the box, I saw her press a button on the side. A handle sprouted from one end, and a pair of wheels I hadn't seen in my haste popped out of the corners on the other.

  I let out another loud groaned and let myself flop back on the hard concrete of her workshop. My face felt off like something was wrong. I carefully reached up to find that I had wholly flattened my nose against my face.

  Since it wasn't part of the permanent damage, I hadn't even felt it. With a mental effort, I connected with my mask and told it to restore my face, to my previous setting.

  Kani gaped, as I felt movements pull and shift under my skin. “That’s so cool!” She whispered excitedly, she almost reached out to touch my face before she caught herself and backed off.

  Just like that, all the emotions that I hoped had been under control, came rising unbidden. What little irritation and anger my Foundation could hold escaped, bulging and boiling a room that I should have had perfect control over. Desperately I tried to think of what Madam had told me of the Foundation.

  My floor, ceiling, and walls would be the bedrock of my Foundation. This was where the emotions were invested since my feeling were literally set in stone, it was meant to signify that I would be hard to move by my feelings, hard to affect and therefore always under my own control.

  I would form a bunker with my Foundation. In this bunker, I would hang pictures and frames of the things I cared about the most. I should only do so carefully and with significant consideration, because all the tools I had in my bunker would have much difficult carving into it, otherwise my Foundation would be unstable. Thus it would require a great effort for someone or something to be important to me.

  I still remember first ‘hanging' a portrait of a hero up ion my bunker, I remembered it because of its absence. Then there was Tinkers, the orphanage cat from when I was young. His frame was gilded and golden. I had ringed it with gems and inlaid it with precious metals. He was my first friend, he was also the earliest death I could really remember experiencing.

  Now my bunker was roiling, in upheaval. My floor was shifting, cracking and seemingly transparent at places. All I could do to try and control it was keep my balance, hold steady, then brace myself for the long run.

  "Thanks," I said, trying sound cheerful. I didn't. Then I grabbed the handle and pulled hard on the box. It was big, not big enough for me to lie down in, hence why I knew that she hadn't finished with my framework yet, but it was at least as big as my upper torso. Getting it up the stairs and into the car was a beast blazed nightmare.

  Not because it was too heavy for me to lift, it wasn't, but due to its center of gravity. I had literally no training in lifting heavy things, and now I was saddled with a massive thing that I had to move. I probably made it more difficult than it had to be. I definitely did.

  In a blinding flash of sudden wisdom, I also took a few minutes to calm down once more. The fact that I had so little control over my own emotions frightened me considerably.

  ***

  Once I was more confident that my emotions were under some sort of control, I stepped back down into the workshop.

  I found Kani, reaching for something on a tall shelf. She was obviously at her stretching to her fullest, just to reach the ledge. I’d noticed a pad of paper when I’d entered the workshop. I took one, mashed it together, aimed and fired.

  Boom! Headshot!

  It was silly and petty, but it felt good in a preschooler kind of way.

  "Hey!" She growled, turning around to glare at me. I simply shot her my best smug smirk as I sidled up to her, reached up and pulled down the wrench that she had tried to grab.

  “Is this what you wanted?” I asked, casually slipping it into the holster on my leg. Usually the holster would’ve been used for big trash sacks, but I had recently run dry and had forgotten to get new ones. For now the large wrench fit nicely in my leg.

  "I almost had it." She said, sourly. "If you're so big and strong can you grab those." She pointed over at what seemed like a toolbox
.

  I was just about to reply with appropriate amounts of arrogance, then I remembered the box. “Is it like The Box?” I asked her instead, approaching carefully.

  "The box?" She asked innocently. "Whatever do you mean?"

  "The Dreaded Box of Head Banging," I told her blithely. Another unwomanly snort escaped her mouth, as she tried to hold in laughter.

  "Ahh, that box. No this is different." She said, "It's just a toolbox."

  Well then. I thought, reaching down to grab it.

  "Or is it my sparker toolbox, that I put out, so my coworker cant grab my actual tools and get shocked instead?" She mumbled just quietly enough for my ears to catch it, and too late for it not to matter.