Chapter 14: Social Armor

“So what did you need, Paradox?” Titan asked. The green-eyed bruiser was wearing his costume, so Perry wore a helmet. It felt a little weird doing it in a crowded coffee shop, but that was the world they lived in.

Perry had gotten Titan’s work number from Hardcase and proceeded to set up an emergency meeting: The clock was ticking.

“I need someone to bodyguard my friend…let’s call her Star.”

“We’re not exactly bodyguards, Paradox, and High tide is coming in. Things are gonna get real busy over the next month or two.”

“Star got the information about the prawn deal from Karnos.” Perry said. “It’s only a matter of time before Karnos finds out about it and retaliates. Don’t you guys want another chance at arresting him?”

“I wouldn’t mind it,” Titan said. “But that doesn’t change the fact that High Tide is coming in and we can’t spare the manpower.

“Oh, I know. I’ll have Star help you out in one of my suits,” Perry said. “You get extra manpower, she gets protection by association.”

“And I have to worry about Karnos blindsiding my team.”

“I’ll throw in some street leathers that can stop bullets for Manic, enhanced materials for Hardcase and weapons for Warcry and Jetset.”

Titan tapped the table, his eyes narrowed as he weighed the pros and cons.

“Deal,” he said, reaching across the table and grasping Perry’s hand in his iron grip.

“I’ll get Star under your wing in an hour or two, the rest of it is going to take a few days to make. Do you know what you want first?”

“A nonlethal sidearm for Jetset would be excellent. Kid’s got next to no offensive capability.”

“I can do that,” Perry said, nodding, his mind already chewing on the problem.

***At Paradox’s Lair***

“Now I know you’re nervous going out there on your own with the big kids, but you just be your usual charming self, listen to the teacher, and try to make friends. You’ll have a great time.” Perry said, sliding the visor up and down to make sure it was working properly.

In the background Perry’s CNC machine was working full-tilt cutting out the frame of another Mk II. The second time would be much faster now that all the kinks were worked out. He’d resized the first one for Heather, and had taken all the magic weapons out of it except for Dregor’s Flacidity.

He claimed it was a melt ray he’d borrowed from his dad’s armory, and Heather bought it. As long as she knew what it did and used it judiciously, he didn’t see why she shouldn’t have some debuffs just in case.

“Thanks, mom.” Heather said, rolling her eyes.

“You’re welcome sweetheart. Remind me not to forget the ‘sidearm’, would you?”

Once Perry had an idea for a good nonlethal weapon for Jetset, he’d been able to make two of them in less than an hour out of cut aluminum and poured rubber.

“Alright, try walking now.”

The suit hummed to life, and Heather took a step forward.

“Knees in the right place? Elbows and wrists? Do jazz hands.”

“It’s all in the right spot, but It’s a little tight around my hips.”

“Not much I can do about the size of your butt,” Perry shrugged, suddenly inspired to create a resizing system for his armor that could be modified via ratchet.

I gotta write that down.

Perry thought, tongue sticking out as he made a quick note.

“Tell you what,” Perry said when he was done. “I can pry open the spine area about half an inch around your butt, then weld some plate in there to keep it a bit looser.”

“Do what you gotta do,” Heather said.

Perry scooted over and grabbed a hammer and wedge, and began brutally hammering the butt-area, spreading it out and penetrating the gap.

Kinda sounds dirty.

“Oh my god, that’s better.” Heather said with a sigh as he slammed her butt-plate.

Hehehe. Gotta enjoy ourselves where we can.

Perry jammed some aluminum plate into the gap and welded it secure before snipping it off with oversized clippers.

It wasn’t pretty, but it would do what Perry wanted it to do.

“But seriously. Make friends with these people. Half the plan is making sure they’re at least a little invested in keeping you alive. So be nice.”

“I got it.”

“Also, your codename is ‘Star’.”

“What!?” Heather asked. “That’s terrible. It’s both bland and girly.”

“It’s just a loaner name, and hey, what’s wrong with girly?” Perry demanded.

Heather didn’t bother to respond.

“Alright, try flying now. I added a tiny gyroscope to the center of mass to help stabilize the flight. Same controls as last time.”

Heather nodded, and the jets began to flare, lifting the entire suit off the ground without nearly as much wobbling as before.

“Excellent, we’re almost ready to send you out to meet Titan’s team. Next I’m gonna need some blood for this bowl.” Perry said, pulling out the scrying bowl made from a giant’s cornea.

Heather stared at him.

“I got a blood draw kit in the toolbox,” Perry offered.

Heather continued staring at him.

“Heather I’m gonna need you to muster all of your daddy issues and give me some blood. It’s insurance.”

Heather shook her head and groaned, unlatching the chest plate and climbing out of the armor.

“Have you ever done this before?” She asked as Perry grabbed a blood-draw kit out of its box and put a tourniquet around her upper arm, wiping down the area above her vein with a disposable alcohol wipe.

“How hard can it be? You think they train professionals for this?” Perry asked, landing the vein on the first try before pulling the release knot on the tourniquet. Take that phlebotomists.

Blood began flowing into the blood bag.

“This is probably an awkward time to ask, but are you a virgin?” Perry asked conversationally. “There’s a bunch of other cool stuff I could use this for if-“

Perry glanced at Heather’s expression and shut up. A moment later he clicked the valve that pinched off the tube, replacing the needle with a colorful band-aid.

“There we go,” Perry said, closing up the bag and putting it away in the fridge. The blood didn’t have to be fresh, but fresher was always better. “Now I can spy on you whenever I want.”

Heather stared at him.

“What?” Perry asked.

“I’m getting that blood back when this is over.” Heather said.

Perry gave a faux gasp. “You think I would spy on you if it were anything other than an emergency!?” Perry asked, his voice dripping with fake indignation. “…Or if I was bored?”

“There it is,” Heather said, rolling her eyes.

“Here,” Perry said, grabbing his notepad and scribbling down an I.O.U.

I.O.U. ½ liter of blood.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

- Perry Z.

He handed it over to Heather.

“Better?”

“Slightly,” Heather said, tucking the paper away in her pocket.

“Alright, let’s go get you set up with Titan’s crew,”Perry said, standing up.

Heather followed suit and grabbed the table for stability. “Whoah,” she said, wobbling in place as the blood-loss caught up to her.

“And maybe get you a cookie on the way.” Perry added.

***Later***

Perry and Heather arrived at the meeting place. Another abandoned building whose owner hadn’t bothered to get repaired after a super-brawl, where Titan’s team had assembled in a loose semicircle.

East Block Defenders, they called themselves, but that was a mouthful, so Perry just thought of them as Titan’s Crew.

Heather landed and Perry jumped out of her arms, straightening his helmet as he examined the assembled capes.

Jetset and Manic seemed neutral. Hardcase was unreadable inside her mechsuit, naturally, and Warcry looked a bit sour.

“I figured out some effective nonlethals.” Perry said, brandishing his creations. “Didn’t even take that long to make.”

Aluminum rubber-band guns, complete with extra-thick rubber bands that he’d poured earlier, six shots apiece, and easily reloadable with a fold-out winch.

Each of the rubber bands was naturally about fifty times thicker and more energetic than a regular one. Once Perry’s Spendthrift multiplier was applied, that number jumped to about fifteen hundred.

In short, it would leave a bruise.

“Is that a rubber band gun?” Titan asked, raising a brow.

“Yep, I even added a brace so it doesn’t snap your wrist or whack you in the face,” Perry said. “Care to try it out?”

“Sounds cool,” Jetset said, hovering closer and taking the pistol out of Perry’s hand and fitting his arm under the brace.

The flying cape leveled the gun at a nearby 55 gallon drum and pulled the trigger.

BANG!

“Jesus!” Jetset shouted, wobbling in midair as he almost conked himself in the face due to the recoil.

The stiff rubber was partially embedded in the drum, at the center of a crater in the sheet metal.

“It’s got a built-in winch you can flip out and wind back to load them. Good enough?” Perry asked.

“Mmm,” Titan nodded. “Good enough. Is that other one for Warcry?”

“Yep.”

“I’d rather die than walk around wearing a literal rubber-band gun.”

“If she doesn’t want it, I’ll take two.” Jetset said, winching his rubber band back into place.

“Warcry, we’ve talked about this. You need nonlethal.” Titan said, with the exhausted tone of someone dealing with a child.

“But it’s a rubber band gun! It looks totally lame.”

“Does it really matter what it looks like?” Perry asked.

“Yes!”

Perry waited patiently while Titan convinced their energy-wielder to use the thing, until she finally snatched the gun out of his hand, giving him a sour look. Like it was Perry’s fault that she was an idiot.

I guess you can’t expect every member of a semi-pro team to be a pro.

Titan was in his mid-twenties, obviously going career cape, but most of his team members were significantly younger and seemed to be in it more for the glory and roughhousing. Or perhaps, in Warcry’s case, breaking expensive things and getting away with it.

I wonder if I could scout Titan. Smart bruisers are valuable.Probably not though, given that he’s already the leader of his own team.Not much upward mobility working for me…yet.

“Since we haven’t worked together with Star before, I set us up with something easy, so we can get some practice.” Titan said.

“Hardcase looked into why on Earth the Razors would be buying a prawn,” He continued, “and she figured out that they were acting as middlemen for Locust.”

Locust was the business-cowl in the North Block who trained minions, renting them out to other Cowls when they needed extra hands. Chances were the minions with Raider who’d run away rather than fight to the bitter end, were Locust’s.

“Locust has been spending a lot of money recently, especially since the announcement that High Tide is coming in. Our job today is to raid the gangs that were acting as middlemen to see if any of them knew anything about what they were moving. If any of them snuck a peek at the cargo.”

If they can figure out enough of the cargo, they can make a pretty good guess as to what Locust is planning for High Tide. And it’s a lot less dangerous than directly going after Locust or some of the supers who work directly for her.

“Paradox, do you want to come with?” Titan asked, glancing over at Perry.

Perry became acutely aware of the fact that he was wearing a t-shit and jeans, save for the aluminum helmet on his head, and the printing belt concealed under his shirt.

Just vicious gangsters with guns, right?

“Sounds fun,” Perry said, nodding. “I’ll just hide behind Hardcase if things get hairy.”