Child's Play

[Kelne]

What could this be? A mechanic? That was the first and most obvious answer that occurred to Emily as she made her way down from the library to the hangar. This ought to be pretty exciting. Not only a new Wunderkind, but very possibly some new vehicles to fool around with.

[Besyanteo]

Enzo watched Max head down, and knew Emily wouldn't be far behind him. Ahead of him possibly, even. The new girl was going to have plenty on her hands as it stood without him and all the others crowding her too... so he picked up the ping-pong ball from the floor, took Max's paddle, and offered:

"New game?"

[Shinigori V2]

"Sure thing." Kid says. "Not gonna go meet the new girl?"

[Idran1701]

Sam, meanwhile, tags along with Max, curious about the new Wunderkind himself. He's not sure what Rivendare'd mean by "big ideas", but he's not thinking about that much; just meeting a new Wunderkind is interesting enough for him.

[Besyanteo]

Enzo shakes his head.

"Nah. I'll be listening in on the com, unless they cut me off or something. I figure that Max and Emmy and anyone else who goes will be more than overwhelming enough, you know? Plus, if she's a mechanic then we're all going to meet her eventually, for one reason or another. As soon as we go on a mission where we actually meet something threatening."

He smirked a little remembering Winterstorm. They'd expected that to be so much worse. Maybe she would be next time, when she was ready for them. If there was a next time.

[Shinigori V2]

Hangar:

As the children arrive, they see something unusual- In the middle of the room, a pile of parts and scraps, unusual for the Mech hangar as far as they know it. There's a Wunderkind girl there, her uniform a blue-green on white. She's got a blue bandanna in her orange hair, and a pair of screwdrivers poking out, holding her hair up and in place. In her teeth, she's clenching a spanner, and she's working furiously on making adjustments to a motorcycle.

The bike itself seems to be scaled down to their size, but heavily modified. It's got at least a modern dash, but the rest of it is classic, made of immaculate polished steel and chrome, and looking like something out of a movie. It's dual exhaust glistens in the overhead light, and...Is that a soup can oil filter?

A number of the workers are darting around, grabbing more scrap and taking some away. The girl finally spits out the spanner, and looks up, not noticing her new siblings. "Where's th' damn diagnostic I ask'd ya for!? An' where th' hell's my soda?"

Ping Pong:

"Yeah." Kid says. "They said she wants to mess with your weapons and stuff. Which, for me, would be my entire body, which...Yeah, I don't want anyone messing with it just yet. MIght scratch the paint, y'know?"

[Besyanteo]

He nodded.

"Yeah, but she can do that later. It's a cane, I'm sure anything she wants to do with it will take a half hour at the most. I hope she wants to electrify it or something. That would be fun. Right now most of my training with it-" He stopped speaking long enough to serve "-is about using it to try to deflect attacks. Also, I'm not completely screwed if I lose a leg. Well, ok yeah I probably am but whatever."

It occurred to him that he was starting to babble, so he shut up and waited for Kid to say something.

[Shinigori V2]

"Expect to lose a leg anytime soon?"

[Idran1701]

When the girl looks up, Sam waves. "Hi! Rivendare sent us to meet you? I'm Sam. Wow, did you build that?"

[BrainWalker]

Max doesn't really hear her. He's too impressed by her bike. He flies over to examine it more closely.

"Style and power. Damn this thing is sexy."

[Shinigori V2]

"Not built, nah." The girl says. "More a...Custom refurbish." Her grin broadens as Max notices her work. "Hell yeah, she's a sexy thing. I gotta tell ya, if I was a boy-bot, I would hit 'er so hard that whoever managed ta pull me off would be crowned the next Emperor! Unf!"

She wipes her hand on her stomach, though whatever metal she's made of doesn't seem to take stains at all anyway, before making a show of spitting on her hand and holding it out to Sam. "Kerrigan Cecilia Greene. You can call me Casey."

[ChristianC]

Alexis looked at the motorcycle with... well... not so much appreciation as some of the others, though she peered curiously at their newest member, sticking to the backrows for a bit to check her out... she really didn't want a repeat of the Juliet situation.

[Besyanteo]

Enzo laughed a little.

"No, I guess not. So, uhm. Have you met Juliet yet?"

[Shinigori V2]

"She's been in the database a couple of times. She's...Kind of a bitch." Kid says.

[Kelne]

"Pretty nice work alright," Emily said, arriving on the scene a little behind the other two, "Though I think I'll skip prising it from Max's cold metal hands. Emily Hasting," she concluded, extending her own hand.

[Shinigori V2]

Casey grins, shaking it vigorously. "Nice ta meetcha. Yer the pilots, right? Prolly gonna be workin' with you th' most, I'd bet. Though I got some great things in mind for pretty much everyone in this squad. ...An' th' next, an' th' one after that...."

[Idran1701]

Sam shakes her hand after Emily, grinning back. "Hi, Casey, I'm Sam. I'm not one of the pilots, I just wanted to meet you and see what kinda stuff you were doing. Have you always built stuff like this, or was it only after you got made a Wunderkind?"

[Shinigori V2]

"Oh, pretty much always." She says, stretching her arms, then folding her hands behind her head. "I jus' gotta lot better at it after I changed."

[NebulaQueen]

"I bet you did!"

Silvie walked into the room, beaming at everybody, and said, "Hey there! You're the new girl, ri-ooooh, nice bike!"

[Idran1701]

"Oh, hi Silvie. Yeah, isn't it?" Sam turns back to Casey. "Do you build a lotta different kinds of stuff? Or is it just motorcycles and cars and that kinda thing?"

[BrainWalker]

Max can't help but laugh at Casey's eagerness to get physical with a motorcyle. "Oh, I can tell we're going to get along. I'm Maxwell Hasting, but everyone calls me Max. Probably, at least partially, because I asked them to. I'm Emmy's brother. As in, by blood. Except... we don't actually have blood anymore." Max turns to Emily. "You know, we need to come up with a new word to describe our relationship since we call everyone brother and sister."

[ChristianC]

...Hi, I'm Alexis... her digital voice finally peeped up, and she stepped up next to the others. I'm... I guess I'm the recon and infiltration specialist... nice to meet you.

She smiled nervously, memories of Juliet floating around in the back of her head. She really wasn't interested in experiencing something like that, but... things were already looking better!

[Shinigori V2]

"You could go with twins, prolly." Casey says, getting a weird look when she hears Alexis. "Oh, for a second, I thought that was the radio. I didn't think I had it tuned, but hey, whatever. Nice to meetcha!" She turns, kneeling again and beginning to work on the bike once again. "Yeah, anyway, I work on anything I can get my hands on. Especially now that I understand machines so much more. ...I mean, I did before, y'know?"

[Idran1701]

Sam nods. "Yeah, I kinda know what you mean. We all have a bunch of new stuff in our heads now too. It's kinda weird that I know how to do stuff just kinda like magic like that, but it's kinda neat too." He perks up as something comes to mind. "Oh yeah! Mr. Rivendare said you had a bunch of big ideas for stuff for us too? Not just Max an' Emily I mean, but all of us? Is it somethin' like changin' our bodies or somethin' like that?"

[Shinigori V2]

"Eh, evenchully." Casey says. "So far, only mine's a custom job, an' I've barely done anythin' to it, yet." She flexes her arm, for emphasis. "Until I learn more 'bout our bodies, I'm mostly gonna just mess with yer guns an' gear an' stuff. That is, if ya want me to.

[Idran1701]

"Oh, neat, that sounds like it might be good." Sam nods. "What kinda stuff can you do with them?"

[Shinigori V2]

"Right now, I'm workin' on makin' new typesa ammo an' stuff." Casey says proudly, making adjustments to the bike's engine. "Gimme enough money or raw mats an' I can make stuff from scratch."

[NebulaQueen]

"Whoa, really? I didn't know you could do that."

[Idran1701]

"Wow, yeah. Like really special kindsa things? What kindsa stuff can you make? And what's a mat?"

[Shinigori V2]

"Uh..." Casey says. "..Materials. I can make anythin' you get me a schematic for, though."

[NebulaQueen]

"Huh!"

Silvie thinks on this for a moment, before her eyes widen. "Oh! I guess I should say who I am before I start askin' you for stuff. My name's Silvie, and I'm the...I hit things so they don't have to."

[Kelne]

"Sounds pretty neat," Emily said, "Don't let everybody bombard you with requests for custom gear at once, though." She grinned, sternly resisting the temptation to put in any requests of her own just yet, "You might never escape the workshop."

[BrainWalker]

"Okay, wait, that's awesome and all, and I'm sure I'll be putting in some requests, but did you say your body is a custom job?"

[Shinigori V2]

"Yeah." Casey says. "I've messed with it a bit. Upping my strength potential so I can haul my own scrap is about it so far, but I got some other ideas. And y'know, Silvie, where I come from, we calls that a "Hammer'."

[NebulaQueen]

"Hammer?" Silvie smiled; that sounded kinda cool. Like something one of the pilots from Mazinger Plus would call themselves, or an achievement you could get in Stellar Build III...

"So, where are you from?"

[Shinigori V2]

"Oh, I'm from Kuprulu, thatsa small town in Elzam."

[NebulaQueen]

"Oh! Oh! You mean, that place with the huge Rokham Sokkem Tournament?!"

[Shinigori V2]

"Yeah!" Casey says. "That's the place!"

[ChristianC]

You're rebuilding your body? Alexis looked a little confused, they were allowed to do that? Then again, none of the grown-ups had ever told them not to, so she guessed it should technically be no big deal.

That's really cool! I've been thinking of trying to put in something in my hands... or feet, to make climbing easier. Do you think you could do that?

Then she realized that the conversation was going in a completely different track since she'd disappeared into her own thought-realm, and she added. I've never heard of Kuprulu, is it nice there? What's the weather like?

[Besyanteo]

Enzo nods in response.

"Yeah, that's the impression everyone else has had so far. It's pretty obvious she's trying to keep that image, too."

He shrugged, and thought of a minute. Kid had been there when Byrd came out, so that wouldn't be new to her. Still, she was something to talk about.

I know I was one of the ones making light of it at the time, but Byrd concerns me.