Ep 1.5 Level Up (Closed)

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In hindsight, maybe Wheeljack hadn't chosen the best way to explain what was going on or given the most reassuring response. But then again, his sense of judgement was seriously skewed as a giant alien robot and it was not going to get better over the course of a conversation.

"Miko," he began patiently. "I've completely re-purposed the holo-emitter from its original function. Now I can plan and make predictions what the gauntlet will do to the best of my ability but it still needs to be field tested and fine-tuned. In fact, I would be very surprised if it worked correctly on its first go. And Wonder Woman isn't exactly an ideal representation of what would happen to a human body. She couldn't exactly regain her balance once she started to tip over. You would have. You don't fall to the ground or break a limb every time someone pushes into you." Wheeljack paused for a moment. His optics narrowed as he thought a little bit about the human girl. She did lead a rather active lifestyle. "Or at least, not to my knowledge, you don't."

"As for an outside influence on the integrity of the bubble...well," here the Wrecker's voice grew sombre. "If you're worried about something having enough strength to distort the bubble, whatever that was would kill you if it hit you unshielded," he said frankly. "On the other hand, if you're thinking about someone trying to hack or compromise the gauntlet's programming, it'll be locked and respond to only your biosignature. No, yours and hmm...Jack and Raf. Plus Doc Ratchet. In case of emergencies and it needs to be removed and you can't, for whatever reason."

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"Maybe we should have used something like ballistics gel," Miko thoughtfully supplied while staring down at the mess of the mannequin. Apparently, for the moment, she was over her minor freak out. While science in school never did it for her (snore) she did have some fondness for the art. Especially when explosives and damage was involved. She watched the heck out of Myth Busters.

He had a point though. The gauntlet would be awesome for her. But what if Raf happened to be beside her when something happened? She couldn't just be safe without him. Heck, she'd rather just give him the gadget if worse came to worse. He was much smaller than her and kind of delicate for a guy.

"Jack and Raf definitely need to be able to use this. While my skills at avoiding danger are great, Raf moves about as well as a stuffed animal. Jack is...a little better," she begrudgingly added.

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"Maybe," Wheeljack agreed. "'Human's more than just tissue though." The Wrecker's mind began to turn the idea over in his head. "Though I think Fowler will take a hard look at what I'm up to if I start ordering some in. Wonder Woman was the quick and easy off the books option."

He turned his head when Miko brought up the other kids. Wheeljack let out a gusty exvent. "Would build more of these for 'em if I could," he told her. "The trouble is getting my servos on more intact holo projectors. Don't have the necessary components to build 'em from scratch. Some ships have them, some don't and its rare to pull 'em out from a wreck in one piece."

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"Hey, that we got one is kind of cool." Miko was, if anything, a optimist. One had to be when they routinely pissed off the entire base as a hobby. Not that she did that on purpose! She just had no luck sometimes. Or interesting luck. Yeah, she'd go with that last one.

"What happens if someone tries to take it off of me?" She was thinking of the very tiny possibility of an enemy actually getting close enough (and managing the dexterity) to slip the gauntlet off of her arm. But, she supposed in a detached sort of grim way, that they could always just rip her arm off. And then she'd be without an arm and a shield. Effective and horrible. Probably something she'd do the enemy if she had the power. Yup, she'd have to watch her arms in the future.

"Like, before it's activated? Is that possible?"

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"We should focus on getting the one we have right before thinking about others, huh," Wheeljack straightened up. He frowned over the distance to the mess of broken plastic. It was unlikely that the gauntlet had been damaged when the dummy had been thrown about, due to its construction from alien metal.

"It really shouldn't be removable unless it's been unlocked first," Wheeljack assured her. "It'll sit pretty tightly on your forearm. There's machinery inside that allows it to tighten or loosen the diameter of the gauntlet all along its length. So when you put the gauntlet on, it'll start to adjust itself to your arm and then set itself...hmm, no, there should be some manual control over that."

The Wrecker was side-tracked by the new problem that had occurred to him and his next words were muttered half to himself. "Forgot you can't just ping it new instructions. That should be easy to work around, it's a holo-emitter. Could put in a touch activated holo-interface so you muck around with the settings after putting it on your arm. An interface would barely drain the power like the shield does and it'll only be running when it needs to be…"

Wheeljack shuttered an optic as he tried to visualise the solution he'd envision in his mind. Activated by fingerprint perhaps? But not just that, otherwise the interface would be going off whenever she touched it accidentally. So perhaps a specific pattern, like the way those human smart phones could be locked? That could work. All he had to do was add a strip of plating on the surface that was touch sensitive.

Finally, he regained his train of thought. "Anyway, it'll be narrower down towards your wrist right? Can't exactly slip it off your arm unless you loosen all of it first."

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That all sounded very complicated to Miko. So she just let her attention drift to the landscape and watched a hawk circle about on the high winds. Like she was sorta thinking about what he was saying. Probably looked good in practice. But she was really thinking about lunch. A sandwich would be awesome right now. And some of those pretzel sticks.

"I trust ya, Wheeljack." She patted his shoulder with one hand, mildly surprised how much the plating was warming up in the sun. Did the mechs with darker paint jobs get really hot? Was that like their version of wearing denim on a summer day? Or did they even register the heat on the plating? All good questions she didn't think to ask aloud.

"Hey, when we're done with Wonder Woman, can we throw her off a cliff?"

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"I trust ya, Wheeljack."

Wheeljack was caught off guard by the words, casually spoken and accompanied by the barest amount of pressure on his shoulder. He might as well have been prodded with an electric shock for the effect it had on him instead of the light touch of a human child.

How long had it been since someone had said that to him? Since he'd said it to someone else?

And for the words to be meant in earnest?

He really didn't want to think about the answer to that question.

A small, honest smile curled the edges of Wheeljack's mouth for a moment. Then Miko's question registered and he laughed.

"Sure we can," he said, amused. "Whatever you want, Miko."