The Brain and The Brawn

## 4:29 PM, July 31st, 2020 - A street near the Niccals Family Community Center

The loud sound of a rocket echoes back and forth along the buildings as the hammer they are attached to slam into a robot body. The Rubicon falls over, then shifts forms to flip back up onto its feet. The wielder of the hammer is a fairly tall robotic-looking suit of armor. It’s made of a mix of carbon fiber and steel, mainly the large plates of armor molded around the carbon fiber that connects to the person inside. The color scheme is mainly a purple with black and white accents, the suit having a sort of futuristic knight aesthetic with the angles and pieces that make it up. It gripped the hammer again and launched forward to do a large sideways swing at the Rubicon, speakers sounding out for the wielder to speak.

“You...freaking...Bishop...asshole! Just go down already!”

Whiz rushes down the street following the crashing sound of impacts and rockets. Rounding the corner from the alley he was in he stops short at the scene before him. Seeing the hulking armored figure going to town on the Bishop bot puts a smile on his face. He scurries up a nearby fire escape to get a better vantage point before calling down to the stranger.

"Hey! You need some help with that or are you good?"

His robot arms juggle some metallic pellets over his shoulders.

Hana looks up, her suit finding the moving figure and zooming in. Whiz! She grinned, figuring he’d love to help fight some shitty renegade Rubicon. She juked and gave the Rubicon a shove with her hammer to get it away before looking up again.

“Yeah! Freaking thing keeps regenerating and reforming! If I keep it busy could you get in its innards and rip out some of that shitty Bishop tech that’s doing that?” she shouted, the suit playing it out for her. It altered her voice just enough that if you didn’t know it was her, you’d probably not recognize it.

Whiz grins and gives the armored figure a thumbs up. He climbs up onto the rail of the fire escape and calculates the best angle to hit the Rubicon from. The grin becomes a smirk as he leaps from his perch, his mechanical arms latching onto the rubicon as he drops the little pellets into some gaps in the Rubicon's armor. A gentle whirring sound can be heard as they activate targeting the various systems that allow the bot to reform. Several sharp pops can be heard and Whiz kicks off and gets clear.

"All yours!"

Shade laughs as the robot starts to malfunction as hops away from it.

“Nice one, dude!” she shouts, then leaps up with her hammer back above her, then brings the hammer down with a big overhead swing. The Rubicon is smashed into the ground with a loud crunch. It whirs and reaches up a final time before she winds back, the rockets blasting as she smashes it once more. The sounds of the Rubicon finally stop. Shade leans on the hammer and looks to Whiz.

“Thanks, man! Dunno how much longer I coulda just smashed that thing. I...I really need to get back, uh, if you wanna hang, you could, if you’re not like busy or whatever”

Whiz cocks his head in confusion. His brows draw together as he tries to think of if he knows this person and he just draws a blank.

"Uh yeah sure I was just finishing up a patrol, the name is Whiz. Are you new in town? Don't think I've seen you around before"

Shade blinks a few times inside the helmet, taking a few moments before she realized he probably didn’t recognize her.

“Oh! Duh! One sec!” she said, reaching up and tapping a switch that made the helmet recede to reveal her face to him. She was far paler than usual and had bags under her eyes, sweaty and panting like she was out of breath and exhausted.

“Uh, hey, it’s me. I forgot I like, haven’t shown this to everyone yet. Wh-what’s up? You’re on a patrol or something?” she says, now that her voice isn’t being amplified and played by the helmet speakers, she sounded tired and weak.

"Oh Shade! Wow what is this thing?! How did you get the head of the hammer to keep from flying off the handle? This is like way bigger than you, does it have an internal frame that amplifies your movements or are you purely using your own strength to move around?"

As the surprise fades and the initial rush of questions begins to slow he notices her haggard appearance and the strain in her voice. He frowns with concern his brows drawing low as he narrows his eyes at her.

"Hey are you okay? You look awful?"

She gives a slow nod to his final question. “Yeah, I just, like, really need to get back soon as I can. We can chat back at my place, yeah? Follow me” she said, the helmet flipping back up as she turned and started running, the hammer resting on her shoulder. Her armor moved fairly quickly for its size, it wasn’t long before they got back to the community center. Hana led them through the back alley behind the building, and a hidden garage door started to slide open. The girl stood impatiently, her large robot foot tapping on the asphalt until it got wide enough.

She ducked through and came into her hidden base/apartment, and leaned back to rest the armor against a large stand that held it in place. Air released as the armor started to come undone and away from her. The helmet slid back and front opened to reveal the piloting frame Hana was inside. She slipped out of it and stumbled out onto the ground in front of the armor, breathing heavily.

“C-could you get me some water from the kitchen?” she asks, raising a hand to shakily point out from the garage back into the main room of the base.

Tiago barely managed to keep up with the hulking armor running at full speed behind it. After standing with his hands on his knees taking deep breaths for a moment he glances over to his friend. He notes her apparent impatience as she taps her foot and ducks under the slow opening door. Where Shade had to duck to pass the door he managed to simply walk in after her. Whiz stood next to the armor as she got out of it.

"Woah Hana!" He reaches out to steady her as she lands. "Yeah water sure thing." Tiago rushes over to the kitchen and gets a cup of water. He hurries back and hands over the glass.

"So is this normal for when you use the suit or was that fight with the Rubicon harder than it looked?"

Hana takes some deep breaths, just concentrating on remaining upright while he got it and returned. She nods a thanks, then drinks the water slowly. Another deep breath, and she returned to her feet, though still wobbly.

“Uh, normal. It’s a...long story. Uh, wanna sit?” she says, walking through to the main room and then back to her apartment, very slowly. In the den, she falls to the couch and grimaces.

“Ow...ow...ow...ugh, freaking Rubicon...freaking Bishop...assholes…” she grumbles to herself.

Tiago follows closely behind Hana, lines of concern etched across his face, watching carefully so he can help if she stumbles. As she finally reaches the couch he almost lets out a sigh of relief, though the sound of her pain draws a wince from him. He takes a seat next to her, his brows drawn together as he studies her.

“I know I wasn’t there for the whole thing but it didn’t seem like that bot was giving you so much trouble that you’d be hurting this badly. Is This some kind of side effect from the suit? Do you need an ice pack or something?”

Hana sips the water slowly, then shakes her head.

“No, don’t need ice. Just some rest. It’s the suit” she said, laying her head back. She grimaced once more, then breathed in through gritted teeth.

“It’s...so like, okay. The suit doesn’t really have its own power source. Well, it kinda does. So, when the person gets inside the frame, there’s some bioelectric conductor panels that attach. They read movements and amplify strength so when you got super strength like me, it’s like, so super strong, but they draw energy from the person inside. It’s like...draining your life force to operate. Sledge told me it’s just supposed to be a ‘last resort’ kinda thing, like, only if you totally have to. I was just testing it but then that Rubicon showed up and it was like, going haywire and I had to stop it. Uh...I’m really glad you showed up.” she explained, then glanced to him with a small smile.

"Hana that's too reckless!" Tiago stares in disbelief at his friend. He shakes his head and brings a hand up to pinch at the bridge of his nose. "Like what would you have done if I hadn't shown up when I did? Or if there had been another one? You've gotta be more careful with this."

He pauses and lets out a sigh before returning her small smile. "Sorry, you don't need that from me I guess. So it responds to your movements then? Does that mean there's a bit of delay between you moving and the suit following through?"

At this point Tiago pulls out a notebook and pencil from a small bag and begins sketching a basic schematic for his mechanical arms. He draws arrows to highlight the neural interface they use. "You know if we used something like what I use for these prosthetics of mine it could help ease some of the load on the short term while we work to figure out a more manageable power source."

Hana cringes as he gets upset. “I, I know. I was just testing it, but like, that thing attacked and I had to do something, but I know, it was dumb” she said, sighing. She sips at her drink, then glances back to him when he pulls out his notebook.

“Uh, heh, yeah, the frame sort of sends my movements to the armor, there’s not too much lag cause it’s mostly a direct physical connection, but totally, like, the neural connection for some of the more intense stuff like the rocket boosted hammer and the directed energy flow to the different parts of the armor. That would be awesome. Uh, thanks, man. I appreciate you like, trying to help figure stuff out. My main thing is trying to find some kind of power source for it so it doesn’t like, you know, almost kill me whenever I get in it. I showed Bolt and we smashed some crates and I felt like I ran a few miles, hehe” she said, chuckling after.

"Hmmmm that's not very efficient, where did you get this thing from again? Did Sledge give it to you?"

Tiago starts writing down notes in the margins of the pages and adding to his drawings. As his focus is pulled into his work the tip of his tongue pokes out from between his lips. Before long he's prepared an exploded diagram for the proposed neural interface with a small legend in the corner so Hana can understand his various shorthand terms.

"Like if we're talking a suit that drains the power from the user that would take someone incredibly resilient to handle that for any kind of time to make all of this worth the time, effort, and resources it would take to build. So maybe it's a matter of recalibration rather than a new power source."

He looks up from the notebook and meets Hana's eyes, "Yeah sure, you're my friend. Like even after I told you about the FutureSite… that means a lot." Color rises in his cheeks as he finishes the statement and he looks away and clears his throat.

Hana watched him draw, her eyes widening some as he goes into focus mode and draft out a whole revised interface system and plans to calibrate it.

“Holy crap, dude, this is amazing! This looks like some professional level stuff! Niiiice” she said, looking it over, nodding with him as he explained his ideas. This was way beyond her, she knew hacking and computers and interfaces and stuff but Whiz was on a whole other freaking level. She glanced to him after, and her cheeks matched the red as he called her his friend.

“I, well, yeah. Cool. Yeah. Like, you’re my friend too and stuff. The whole FutureSite thing, like, we both got crap in our past, I got no place to judge you at all, dude. Plus you’ve helped me out a lot, hell if you hadn’t been there today I might have died. Like, yeah. Heh, dang, three for three for getting friends on this couch” she said, giving a chuckle. She leans up and stretches, some of the aches in her body starting to fade. Water and rest helped.

“Oh. Hey, uh, have you talked to Bolt in the past few days?” she asked, looking back to him. Thinking about her other friends reminded her.

Tiago smiles brightly hearing Hana say he's her friend too. “So this is the friendship couch then huh?” As soon as he’s said it he regrets it for how dorky it sounds and instead tries to quickly change the subject to her question. He pauses to think how long ago it was that he had spoken to Mel.

"We're supposed to be on the same team this Sunday for the mech competition thing, but you know how those things go." He laughs and shakes his head. "No, I told him about the FutureSite stuff a couple weeks ago and I texted him on his birthday but I haven't had a chance really. Why did something happen?"

Hana laughed at the ‘friendship couch.’ “It is! You and Atlanta and Bolt, it’s like a superpowered couch or something” she said, laughing still, then looking back to him with a nod. “Gotcha. Well, kinda. Yeah. It’s kinda like...we learned some things that are pretty big and...one of them kind of affects you. Kinda. Just that like, we learned a thing about a mission we had. Uh, I should just say it, huh?”

She sighed, then turned on the couch, sitting on her leg so she could look to him. “So, you remember the A.E.G.I.S. break in? Well, like, we talked to somebody from the Black Magic Club and apparently…” she sighed and looked down. “That whole thing, like, it was real cause Smokescreen did do that for Sam, but like, the Club set it up to make it so they’d hire...Hayeli...so she could free Mirror while we were there.”

Tiago looks at Hana intently as she speaks. When she asks if she should just say it he chuckles quietly and nods. He tries to give a reassuring smile but he’s never really been sure what that means and without knowing what she’s about to say he isn’t sure what to expect. When she finally does reveal Hayeli’s connection to the Black Magic Club and in particular to Mirror his eyes widen for a moment in shock.

“Oh… so it was a set up.” Tiago scowls angry at the thought of being used again, then he remembers Hana’s connection to Hayeli, “Ah shit, I’m sorry Hana, how uh, how are you handling it? I mean all the other stuff happened after that right so I mean that probably wasn’t a part of like ‘the mission’ or whatever. Like that was probably something she wanted to do right so like that is still good right or uhh.”

He goes quiet not really sure what more to say on the subject and definitely out of his element on the matter.

Hana sighed. “Like...I dunno. I feel crappy. I know the club is really shitty. I thought like, maybe even if she was a merc, she might not...never mind, it, it’s stupid. Just, like, I’m glad we could still help Sam, but it sucks knowing it was all to get Mirror out” she said, some disdain in her voice on the mention of Mirror. Her cheeks had some red to them, she was embarrassed about the Hayeli stuff, clearly.

“Well no I don’t think you’re being fair to yourself. Yeah Mirror is the worst, and maybe the Black Magic Club isn’t great either but that doesn’t necessarily mean that Hayeli is evil. She’s just a mercenary, and you knew that going in so you should have known it was a possibility that her work wouldn’t always align with what we agree is right. Like I said she probably went out with you because she liked you too. Unless they said more about her involvement with the club than you’ve said so far” Tiago cocks his head to the side giving Hana a quizzical look. “What’s going through your mind right now Hana? This seems like it’s really weighing on you.”

Another sigh left her. “Yeah, I know. As far as I know, she let Mirror out on the AEGIS thing, then the night all the shit went down back in June she helped them with something then, but they haven’t heard from her since either. That’s the same night I stopped hearing from her, and the same night Smokescreen stopped hearing from her. Like...I dunno, did she just ghost everyone at once? Me, the club, Smokescreen, just ‘cya Halcyon it’s been great’ and she’s gone? I just feel bad knowing that she did those things, helping Mirror and stuff, but even so...like, I want to know she’s okay. I still like her. Our date was...just, like, so awesome. She like, told me stuff about her that you wouldn’t just say to someone that you were gonna ghost, like, you know? Like not just in a “i’m saying what you want to hear” way, like she told me that she had lied about stuff to protect herself and that she didn’t want to do that. Ugh. I feel like I’m just trying to make myself feel better but also like...I dunno, if she was just a terrible person that was gonna ghost me, I don’t think I’d feel like this"she said, motormouthing on for a bit as she leaned back onto the couch and sank into it, her back on the seat as she stared at the ceiling*.*

Tiago ponders for a moment as the words pouring out of Hana cascades over him. He blinks slowly a few times as he tries to gather his thoughts into coherent words.

“Well what was the last thing you heard from her? A lot of shit was going down that day and who knows maybe she got caught up in something weird like a time vortex and is currently working on getting out of it.” He grimaces as he realizes that might not be comforting, “Or maybe her phone just got smashed and she lost all her contacts and she hasn’t been able to get your number back yet.” He nods feeling like this is a better alternative.

“Regardless of why she’s left or how shitty the manner in which she did it is I don’t think you should hold onto it so much you know? You’re Hana! Shade, the incredible protege of Sledge, one of the greatest heroes in Halcyon. She’s the one missing out right now not you. But, if you want me to help you try to find her I’ll do whatever you need for that.”

Hana groaned. “I knooooowwwww that’s why I’m worried about her! I texted her a selfie when I punched out Cheeser and she responded like ‘oh hey looking good’ and it even had a kissing emoji and she said we’d talk later and then that was the last I heard. That’s why I’ve been so focused on it, like, unless you’re just a completely awful person why would you send that text to someone if you were gonna just ghost them right after? Like...just...ahhh” she said, turning around and burying her face in the couch cushion.

After a moment, she pulled her head up and glanced to Tiago. “Crap, I just ruined like, all my cool points with you didn’t I?” she groaned and turned back around to sit in some kind of correct way, though her leg was still up on the seat. “I know, I got other stuff going on in my life and like, I don’t wanna just pine after her forever, just...I dunno. I’ve had this feeling about it since it happened and it won’t go away. Ugh. Uh, thanks for like, listening to me vent about a girl. Speaking of, like, how are you and Sam doing?”

“Well yeah that does seem like there was an implied, we’ll keep talking in that. But also the whole town was thrown into complete disarray so I think giving it some more time is okay. Yeah you’re all caught up in your feelings but there’s nothing wrong with that. It happens to everyone and just having this so open ended it makes sense that you are having trouble letting it go. We’ll figure it out”

Tiago gives Hana a smile and reaches over to place a hand on her shoulder. “Hey don’t be silly, you're still super cool. I mean not as cool as me, but really that’s a peak few can surmount.” He sticks his tongue out playfully before choking at her follow up question. “Oh uhh Sam? Wait, you know about that? I mean uhh well no nothing has really uh I uh…” He trails off as a flustered mess.

Hana tilted her head. “Wait, was that like a secret or something? Or...uhh...never mind, uh, like, yeah, just a general ‘how ya doing’ and stuff, not like I was saying you two were like, uh, anything or whatever. Uh, yeah” she said, trying to recover, she cleared her throat and looked away. “There’s some more stuff that happened, with Bolt. Box too, but like, Bolt learned something like, really really big and...I kinda sorta don’t know if I should be the one to tell you this, maybe he should himself? I guess if you’re gonna see him soon anyways he could tell you then. I dunno. I’d feel weird being the one to tell you. Like, it’s not a big deal, I mean, well, it kinda is, but like uh, just like, Bolt thought something was true about himself but then learned something after we figured some things out about his parents. That’s what I’ll say. Uh, he’s okay, just...yeah, dealing with a thing. Uh...oh, my maybe dad might have worked for SPEAR, so that’s something. I’m gonna try to like, dig into them some when I can.”

“Well no not a secret I guess. I just don’t really know… and I hate that, not knowing I mean, it’s not a feeling I am particularly used to. Spencer told her about it on that night when everything was going on. It’s not anything… yet I don’t think. I’ve been afraid to ask really because then it might just… poof you know.”

Tiago listens thoughtfully as Hana changes the subject, both grateful and regretful. He nods along as she talks around whatever it was that happened to Bolt. “Yeah I’ll wait for him to bring it up then. Oh SPEAR? Wow I worked with them once through AEGIS when that Clashopolis thing showed up over the city. If you’d like I could try and reach out to my contacts and see if I can turn anything up?”

Hana nods. She could relate to that, just hating the not knowing, worried about finding out even so. When he mentioned SPEAR, she looked back to him. “Oh yeah?” she said, raising an eyebrow. “That, that would be really cool, yeah. I don’t know anything about them. Uh, yeah, yeah, thank you” she said. She wanted to mention that he didn’t have to, that she could handle it, but Sledge’s words went through her head again, if Whiz wanted to help, she should let him. “Uh, and, like, uh, if it’s okay to say, I think asking and knowing would be better than having to just keep wondering and imagining the worst scenario” she said, shrugging. “Oh, yeah, another thing: Boon’s mom threw me across the city and that was pretty fun. How have you been? Like overall, things good?”

Tiago smiles again and leans over to playfully punch Hana’s shoulder, “Come on that’s what friends are for. Besides I know that I could ask you for help and if you could you would so, I want to return the favor.” He takes a moment to catch up as Hana quickly moves through a few topics before asking him how he is doing. Tiago’s mouth quirks to the side as he purses his lips in thought.

“Well yeah I can ask and know, but also… I don’t know, I really hate not knowing but in this instance maybe that’s the best course of action. Like I told Bolt about the FutureSite, that was really tough for me, like if I had told him and he got that look in his eyes, you know like that fear where it doesn’t matter what you do they won’t trust you. I get that look a lot at A.E.G.I.S. I really don’t care with them but it would have really hurt coming from Mel… and I don’t know how Sam would react, I mean bad enough she’s had Smokescreen for a dad and Vic for an ex, then Kenneth had the whole Smoke thing. Maybe it’s best if I don’t make things more complicated for her.” He shakes his head to escape the funk he’d fallen into and cracks a smirk looking back to Hana and barely suppressing a laugh, “Wait she threw you across the city? Why’d that happen?”

Hana nodded. That was a good point. She would help if she could, that’s probably what Sledge meant, like, people just want to help people they care about. Dang it why did she always have to be right? She glanced over as Tiago talked about Sam some. That was fair, she felt weird about that stuff too. “Yeah, I get you. Uh, just, maybe like, and if this is like, not cool then tell me and I’ll shut up, but, just, like, maybe you should let her make that decision instead of making it for her? If that makes sense” she said, shrugging.

“Oh! Yeah it was so cool! I, well, it has to do with the Bolt stuff, but like, we were at Boon’s house and the thing happened and it made Box’s hidey glove start freaking out, so Boon started to fly him home. Boon’s mom and Ernest’s mom got the glove fixed, and we had to get it to him, and I can’t fly, so Boon’s mom yeeted me. She’s like, really strong, Valkyrie stuff, so I got to them and we landed on a roof and I got the glove on him so his powers wouldn’t freak out anymore”

Tiago chuckles at the story,shaking his head, “I can’t leave you lot alone for one minute can I?” He playfully sticks his tongue out . His arms reach up with a big stretch as Tiago lets out a groan before wiping his face down with both hands pulling his eyelids as he does. “You know, this will maybe sound awful to you but sometimes I don’t think about how other people could have the answers. For the past few years I’ve played things so close to the chest that the idea that I can talk to someone else or that they could make the decision or have the solution, it’s just alien to me.”

He lets out another sigh, “You’re right, that decision isn’t mine to make, and even though the idea of just telling her about the FutureSite and what I have done is terrifying, it’s not exactly a good thing to keep hidden or anything if I’m hoping for anything more.” Tiago turns to Hana with a smile and places a hand on her shoulder. “Please don’t shut up, you have very good ideas and I’d hate for that to be stifled. And speaking of ideas, I have one I want to try out with that armor of yours,” standing up, Tiago grabs his notebook and turns to her with an excited grin and a gleam in his eyes, “What do you say partner?”

Hana nodded. “Yeah, trust me, I get you there. I’m like, only barely getting used to all this. It’s pretty nice though, like, having you and everybody else as like, friends and a team and stuff” she said, smiling some. The secret softie chuckled and rubbed the back of her neck bashfully. “Heh, thanks. Uh, I occasionally got good ones along with all the bad ones” she said, then her eyes lit up at him suggesting an idea to try.

“Sure! Let’s do it! Seriously if I can get that suit working and not try to kill me everytime I get in it, that would be amazing” she said, standing up. She grunted and stretched, still feeling achey and tired, but better. “Thanks for your help, again, with fighting the Rubicon and talking about stuff. I appreciate it. Let’s do robot stuff!” she said excitedly, though rather than hurrying off like she usually would she just kinda headed out in a light walk.

“Of course Hana, and thanks for talking about my stuff too, it’s been really nice. Now as for my idea, I was thinking about the power issue and I realized…” He jogs for a second to catch up before falling in line with her pace. His voice, energetic and full of excitement, trails off as they make their way back to the armor.