Heroic

by H D Forth

  I emptied them all into the sink, before checking the cleaning cabinets. I had recently improved my cleaning habits, by expanding it into two, as opposed to half of one.

  I was honestly surprised by how much damaging stuff there was that could clean.

  I got tile cleaner—for the bathroom—it was acidic and could do serious damage to the skin if you allowed it to land on you. Next I did lighter fluid which was flammable, because of course I did. And lastly I got whiskey, because if everything went well I might celebrate with something to drink afterwards, even if I couldn’t get drunk.

  I checked every thing else I had. I decided to leave the long handle for the vacuum behind it. It was light weight and easily break able. It wouldn't last a second against Leric. This meant that my reach with my vacuum was the exact length of my left arm. Not much, but it would have to do.

  Not like it would really come in handy though, so it didn't matter.

  Next up a weapon. This I quickly found, was something I lacked at home. I had some light weight metal working gear, like a soldering iron and a power drill, not anything that could really be described as a weapon. I did put a screwdriver in my pocket though.

  That meant that I would have to go somewhere else for me to get a weapon. I could buy a bat in a shop somewhere, but I didn't like the odds of a light weight aluminum bat breaking Leric’s skull. He was just a little above that weight class.

  I figured that if I could get a sledgehammer that would probably be ideal. I sat down and watched the fight again. Strike that, if I had more experience with combat then I could have used a sledgehammer. Right now I was too unskilled and the hammer to heavy, he would knock me down if I tried.

  Something that could pack quite the punch, but wasn't too heavy. The screw driver in my back pocket was a good example, though the range was too short. If he got that close , then I was toast no matter what I did.

  I thought about all the tools we’d had at headquarters. Maybe one of those could work.

  Kani had brought in a pair of bolt cutters. I remember questioning why she’d brought it, and her giving me some excuse about my bolts needing cutting. If I remembered correctly, which was despite my roboticity, wasn’t guaranteed, since not everything was assigned permanent storage. I thought it had a bolt of some sort arranged to keep the two halves together.

  I imagined coming at Leric, dual wielding the two halves of the bolt cutter. If they weren't too heavy then that would pack the extra oomph. They were heavier and I could launch faster attack with them.

  The only problem was that it meant I would have to go to headquarters. Which meant that I had to preferably avoid Kani and Val.

  I checked the clock, then blinked. I hadn't realized it was this close to midnight.

  It was later than I’d thought. As decent a time as any to go to headquarters.

  Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Four

  When I reached headquarters, I immediately saw that some of the first-floor lights were on.

  "Damn it," I mumbled, stopping in the middle of the street. Who cared at this time of night on an off-street like this one, it was empty with an exception for the occasional car.

  For a moment I considered turning around and leaving before I got noticed. However, I needed to do this. I couldn't afford to wait and let things slip my control. I gritted my teeth and walked up to the building.

  I might be able to face Val, she'd probably even think it was a good idea… Who am I kidding, she would have me stand in the corner until I realized what a fool I was.

  But I had to do this. This was something I had to do, I couldn't wait for others to get around to help me. Instead of immediately entering I moved towards the windows where the lights were coming from. Only a few of them were fully lit up.

  As I got closer I started hearing the low hum of welding. It was Kani, I thumped my forehead against the wall. I could probably have figured out since it was her lights that were on, the ones around her area. I approached from an angle, with some distance.

  Hopefully, it would make me harder to notice, though it did somewhat limit my own visibility.

  Kani was working on some sort of contraption, obviously. At least I assumed it was Kani since the mask was down and I couldn't see any of her hair or other defining features.

  I took a few moments to adjust my eye sensors to the sudden onset of light from the welding. It took a moment, but they could handle it. They were actually surprisingly versatile, considering they came from a cleaning robot.

  They didn't have infrared or night vision, but they did have low light and incredible light sensors. Soon enough everything around me was so dimmed that I could hardly see anything else but the window. Even the natural light was dimmed, only the welding light was still somewhat bright.

  It was hard to tell what she was working on, between her large gloves, the welder… gun? Is it called a welding gun? Never mind. It was definitely some tech invention of hers, I could tell by all the wires she had stashed to one side. They already seemed to be in some sort of order though, ready to be put in.

  Finally, the light died down, and I adjusted my sensors, the small alley I was hiding in suddenly returning to light. As my sight adjusted, I saw Kani lift the mask from her face.

  Her face was locked in a frown of total concentration. I had never been allowed inside when she was working on something challenging, no one was, that wasn't just me.

  She had a stain on her right cheek that was soon joined by one on her forehead as she wiped some sweat away. I found myself unconsciously smiling as I watched her examine her work.

  Something was captivating about a woman passionate about something. I accidentally let out a little sigh of joy, as Kani was examining one weld in particular. Apparently, it wasn't just well done, it was brilliant, at least judging from her expression. Her mouth split into a happy little grin, and her eyes twinkled with victory.

  Soon enough the mask was down again, and she continued her welding. If it wasn't already wildly apparent, I didn't really know much about the subject. I had done some measure of soldering on my home projects, but those things weren't really supposed to be under a lot of pressure. Half the time they didn't even work for me. Kani though, she was clearly an expert in her field, and she was just as obviously enjoying working in it.

  She continued welding for a while, occasionally lifting her mask to examine the work. As she progressed further and further her smile grew into a near constant thing. Whenever she lifted her hood and visited upon me a smile of joy, I felt my heart lift a little bit higher and a beat a little bit faster. I could fall in love with her just from watching her work.

  Finally, she didn't just lift the mask. She took it off. She was done. I checked the clock to see how long she had been working. Close to two. It was still dark out, she had almost been welding for two hours straight.

  The first thing she did was to stand up and stretch her neck. She was wearing her usual work attire. A pair of overalls and some shirt underneath that mostly covered her.

  She took a few minutes to work out the kinks from sitting down for so long. Once she returned, she had also cleaned her face off.

  Newly refreshed she sat down in front of her item again. Picking it up gingerly, she examined all the welds and what not. Kani was a girl of quality, not quantity. When it came to her work, I mean.

  Finally, after inspecting the thing for nearly thirty minutes, she deemed it ready for whatever was next.

  She disappeared from view, heading for where I knew she had her shelf of stuff. Soon she returned with the hand from my steel frame. It was from the one that Leric had beat me with since he had held it by the wrist and had crushed the other one.

  She fitted the mechanism over the skeletal shaped hand. I couldn't hear it but could see it clicking into place. She pulled it apart and together a few times, before taking it off and connecting the bundle of wires she had put together previously.

  Methodically, she started secreting them away inside the atta
chment she'd made until a single wire led from the enclosure and ended in some sort of connector plug.

  Clicking the attachment onto the hand once again, she pulled the connected the plug to a socket on a small green electrical board. She put it down on the table, to grab something, giving me my first clear look at the attachment.

  It formed a close mesh around the hand frame. The metal of the attachment was only large enough to run the wires through. At a regular point, multiple lines of the mesh connected into cylinders. Just before Kani returned, I thought I spotted small holes along with the metal.

  She'd brought her laptop. She fiddled first with the computer, then the electrical board. She nodded to herself, and I could see her mumble something, though I couldn't figure it out from there. She pressed a button on the laptop, and the hand jerked. Suddenly, all the holes along the metal started emitting a white foam, in a short time the entire hand was covered.

  Tentatively, Kani lifted it and shook it a few times. What she put down again didn't look like the steel frame hand, covered in a network of metal. It looked like a real hand. She started poking at it, then poking her own hand. She seemed relatively happy with the result, so she turned back to her computer.

  The skin on the hand jerked as she did something on her computer. Slowly, the skin started pulling tauter and paling, into white. Within five seconds, the entire hand was covered in white skin-like substance. It was slightly glossy and reflective, but otherwise, it was just an incredibly pale and thin human hand.

  Kani ran a finger along the hand. It took me a moment, but I finally noticed as her finger reached the ‘meat’ of the palm, that the finger was depressing the skin like before.

  She then picked up a screwdriver and tapped it against the hand. She stuck her head out in a way that suggested that she was listening and tapped it a few more times.

  Then she stabbed into the hand. Not incredibly hard, but I judged it hard enough that it would damage a human one. I could see the mark it left, but it didn't pierce the odd skin.

  Kani threw her arms up, throwing the screwdriver wide as she danced a little jig around her workstation. I could clearly see the bags under her eyes, but the dance was only slightly subdued by tiredness, but her smile and her eyes weren’t as they shone with pride and joy.

  Soon she sat down next to her item and pulled something in from out of my line of sight. It was a medium sized white box, the top was decorated with a bow. She detached the skin armor attachment and put it into the box, then she closed the lid.

  Then she pulled out a paper and started writing. Soon, her head rested one hand as she wrote. She blinked slowly before finally putting the pen away and sliding the card over to the box.

  I could see her mumble something, before lowering her head into her arms.

  Chapter One Hundred Thirty-Five

  When I reached headquarters, I immediately saw that some of the first floor lights were on.

  “Damn it,” I mumbled, stopping in the middle of the street. Who cared at this time of night on an off street like this one, it was empty with an exception for the occasional car.

  For a moment I considered turning around and leaving , before I got noticed. However, I needed to do this. I couldn't afford to wait and let things slip my control. I gritted my teeth and walked up to the building.

  I might be able to face Val, she’d probably even think it was a good idea… Who am I kidding, she would have stand in the corner until I realized what a fool I was.

  But I had to do this. This was something I had to do, I couldn't wait for others to get around to help me. Instead of immediately entering I moved towards the windows where the lights was coming from. Only a few of them were fully lit up.

  As I got neared I started hearing the low hum of welding. It was Kani then, I thumped my forehead against a the wall. I could probably have figured out, since it was her lights that were on, the ones around her area. I approached from an angle, with some distance.

  Hopefully it would make me harder to notice , though it did somewhat limit my own visibility.

  Kani was working on some sort of contraption, obviously. At least I assumed it was Kani since the mask was down and I couldn't see any of her hair or other defining features.

  I took a few moments to adjust my eye sensors to the sudden onset of light from the welding. It took a moment, but they could handle it. They were actually surprisingly versatile, considering they came from a cleaning robot.

  They didn't have infra red or night vision, but they did have low light and incredible light sensors. Soon enough everything around me was so dimmed that I could hardly see anything else but the window. Even the normal light was dimmed, only the welding light was still somewhat bright.

  It was hard to tell what she was working on, between her large gloves, the welder… gun? Is it called a welding gun? Never mind. It was definitely some tech invention of hers, I could tell by all the wires she had stashed to one side. They already seemed to be in some sort of order though, ready to be put in.

  Finally the light died down, and I adjusted my sensors, the small alley I was hiding in suddenly returning to light. As my sight adjusted, I saw Kani lift the mask from her face.

  Her face was locked in a frown of complete concentration. I had never been allowed inside when she was working on something difficult, no one was, that wasn't just me.

  She had a stain on her right cheek, that was soon joined by one on her forehead as she wiped some sweat away. I found myself unconsciously smiling as I watched her examine her work.

  There was something captivating about a woman passionate about something. I accidentally let out a little sigh of joy, as Kani was examining one weld in particular. Apparently it wasn’t just well done, it was brilliant, at least judging from her expression. Her mouth split into a joyous little grin, and her eyes twinkled with victory.

  Soon enough the mask was down again and she continued her welding. If it wasn't already wildly apparent, I didn't really know much about the subject. I had done some measure of soldering on my home projects, but those things weren't really supposed to be under a lot of pressure. Half the time they didn't even work. Kani though, she was clearly and expert in her field, and she was just as obviously enjoying working in it.

  She continued welding for a while, occasionally lifting her mask to examine the work. As she progressed further and further her smile grew into a near constant thing. Whenever she lifted her mask and visited upon me a smile of joy, I felt my heart lift a little bit higher and a beat a little bit faster. I could fall in love with her just from watching her work.

  Finally, she didn't just lift the mask. She took it off. She was done. I checked the clock to see how long she had been working. Close to two. It was still dark out, she had almost been welding for two hours straight.

  The first thing she did was to stand up and stretch her neck. She was wearing her usual work attire. A pair of overalls and some shirt underneath that mostly covered her.

  She took a few minutes to work out the kinks from sitting down for so long. Once she returned she had also cleaned her face off.

  Newly refreshed she sat down in front of her item again. Picking it up gingerly, she examined all the welds and what not. Kani was a girl of quality not quantity. When it came to her work I mean.

  Finally after inspecting the thing for nearly 30 minutes she deemed it ready for what ever was next.

  She disappeared from view, heading for where I knew she had her shelf of stuff. Soon she returned with the hand from my steel frame. It was from the one that Leric had beat me with, since he had held it by the wrist and had crushed the other one.

  She fitted the mechanism over the skeletal shaped hand. I couldn’t hear it, but could see it clicking into place. She pulled it apart and together a few times, before taking it off and connecting the bundle of wires she had put together previously.

  Methodically, she started secreting them away inside the attachment she’d made, until a single wire led from th
e attachment and ended in some sort of connector plug.

  Clicking the attachment onto the hand once again, she pulled the connected the plug to a socket on a small green electrical board. She put it down on the table, to grab something, giving me my first clear look at the attachment.

  It formed a close mesh around the hand frame. The metal of the attachment was only large enough to run the wires through. At a regular point, multiple lines of the mesh connected into cylinders. Just before Kani returned, I thought I spotted small holes along the metal.

  She’d brought her laptop. She fiddled first with the laptop, then the electrical board. She nodded to herself, and I could see her mumble something, though I couldn’t figure it out from there. She pressed a button on the laptop and the hand jerked. Suddenly, all the holes along the metal started emitting a white foam, in short time the entire hand was covered.