At the center of the round chamber was a Boyd-shaped and Boyd-sized mannequin, complete with folded wings, horns, and tail. It was made of white plastic, or maybe it was stone or plaster. Boyd couldn’t tell just by looking at it.

  He was too distracted by what was on the mannequin to care much, anyway. It looked like a partial set of Old-Earth medieval period-looking armor. It wasn’t a full set of plate, or even half-plate armor—which would have been Boyd's preference. Such a suit of armor would not have much sex appeal, though, which was just as important for male Heroes as the females.

  Tinker had obviously kept that fact in mind. Boyd’s new suit consisted of a set of bulky pauldrons that would cause his already wide shoulders to appear even bigger. Straps descended from the pauldrons, crossing over the mannequin's chest before connecting to a belt just forward of the mannequin’s hips. There was also a pair of bracers for his forearms, along with a set of greaves to protect his knees, shins, and the tops of his feet. Completing the look were three sections of tasset plates hanging from the belt that would protect his groin, hips, and the front and sides of his upper legs.

  The straps that crossed the mannequin’s chest and the belt appeared to be black leather. While Boyd would have expected the metal portions of the armor to be black or red to match his demonic visage, they were not. Instead, they were made from a shining silver-like metal a little too bright to be steel, with pale gold accents.

  The metal had a woven, textured look to it instead of being pressed or cast. The apparently woven metal gave the armor a hi-tech and yet still classical look. There was some gold etching worked into the shining plates, too—nothing that complex, but it did add a bit of flair.

  Boyd found he approved. He wished it covered more of his skin, but that was never truly an option. And if it had, they would have covered him in a skin-tight and very thin fabric that didn’t hide a thing. At least it didn’t have a cod-piece.

  “Umm, so… what do you think?” Tinker asked after a moment of Boyd staring at his new suit, taking in every detail.

  This was a moment he’d never expected to come after everything that had happened since he’d graduated from his PAC. And the suit was nothing like he imagined it would be. He’d always figured the design people would play up his demonic appearance, which would mean he’d end up with a suit more befitting a Powered Criminal or a villain from an old-earth story than a Hero.

  Something dark and menacing. Maybe even a little evil-looking. Certainly nothing like this.

  This armor didn’t look evil at all. If anything, it looked like something the hero would wear as he rode in on a white steed to save the damsel in distress. There were no spikes, no horns, no light-consuming blackness. It would make him look like a knight in shining armor.

  “I… I love it.” Boyd muttered, transfixed.

  “You do?” Tinker chirped excitedly, her high-pitched voice picking up speed as she continued. “Oh, I’m so glad. I thought I got it all wrong! That you would want something darker and scarier, but that just didn’t feel right for you. I looked at the initial ideas and guidelines the design team sent over and they were terrible!”

  Tinker scowled and Boyd thought he heard her even growl.

  “They wanted you in black and red spiked leather armor that looked super intimidating. It sounded like something a villain would wear. Kitsune couldn’t stop laughing and mentioned something about BDSM porn… a-and a gimp! Oh, I’m so glad you like this. I was worried you would want something like that. This is so much better for you. You aren't dark or scary at all!” Tinker gasped after getting that all out, somehow managing to fit the deluge of words into a single breath.

  Boyd blinked a couple of times, both to break the hold his new suit had over his attention and to kick his brain into gear so it could process the rapid-fire words. Luckily for him, Tinker ran out of breath, and this gave him his brain the time it needed to catch up.

  He turned to the diminutive genius and grinned at her. “You don’t think I’m dark or scary?” He unfurled his wings to reveal the crimson interior while flicking his long, spaded tail back and forth.

  She gasped in a breath before insisting, “Not at all!” with a firm shake of her head that made her braids bounce against her shoulders and chest.

  He ducked down a bit, looming over her.

  “Okay,” she hesitated, continuing a bit more slowly, “maybe a little scary. Certainly not dark, though. Not at all. You’re not the ‘he came out of the shadows, dark avenger’ type at all. No, you're a protector through and through—much more knight in shining armor than a black knight. Anybody who has met you can tell that in an instant.”

  “Really?” He wasn’t convinced.

  “Once I decided on armor for your suit,” Tinker continued, “the rest was easy. Kitsune and Silver both said I had to get rid of the breastplate I originally made, though. That made mounting the propulsion pack a little harder, but I made it work.”

  “Of course they… Wait, there's a jetpack?” Boyd started with a sigh, but excitement took over as his brain caught up with Tinker’s deluge of words again.

  “Mhmm.” She nodded excitedly, her hazel eyes sparkling. “Well, it’s not a jetpack; it’s a propulsion pack—pretty much the same general idea, just no fire shooting out of it. Instead, it has a mini grav drive. It might take you a little practice, but since it only applies thrust in one direction, it shouldn’t be too hard for you to master.”

  Boyd pursed his lips. Yeah, he couldn’t wait to practice with it.

  “You’ll still use your wings to direct your flight,” Tinker explained. “You just won’t have to depend on them for thrust. Initial estimates were that it should double your straight-line flight speed and your ascension speeds, while nearly tripling your dive speed. That’s without the shield, though.”

  She pursed her lips, twisting them to one side. “It might be a bit slower due to aerodynamic complications if you have your shield on your arm.”

  “Shield?” Boyd asked, looking around for it.

  “Yeah. Didn’t I mention the shield?”

  Boyd shook his head.

  “Oh… well, sorry. I ordered it before I had access to the lab. It’s over there… with the sword.” She pointed in a direction to one side from the way they’d come in.

  “Sword?” Boyd asked again, grinning at the distractible, newest member of his team.

  “Oh no! I must have dreamed I told you about them at the hospital.” Tinker returned to her rapid, staccato speech pattern with a dismayed expression. “You were so excited, too!”

  Boyd chuckled and smiled reassuringly before responding. “Now you get to see me be all excited twice. I can’t wait to see them.”

  “Oh… yeah?” She asked shyly, hiding her face in her hands. “I made the sword the same way as the dagger, just bigger. The shield should have similar functionality… but as, ah… well… you know, a shield.”

  “Oh, yeah. I am excited to see those. Should I put this on first, though?” he indicated the suit with one hand.

  Chapter 16

  “Yeah!” Tinker cheered. “Oh. Um, you can’t wear your shorts, though. I’ll, ah… I’ll just turn around while you put the bottoms on. I can help with the rest, though!” Tinker promptly and resolutely turned around.

  Boyd stepped up to the mannequin. “How do I unfasten it?” he asked as he examined the strange belt with its hanging tasset plates. He also noticed, for the first time, that there was a pair of black leather shorts under the plates. Calling them shorts was a bit generous—they were more like briefs.

  “Oh, the belt clasp is on the back. You have to twist it. The cross straps from the pauldrons also connect to the belt under the tassets… just twist those to release as well.” Tinker answered with her back still turned. “The shorts unfasten on the sides, just pinch the seam and run your fingers down. There are also functional lacings on the front. Don’t know why, but Silver insisted on them even though it will be under the tassets and out of sight. We can change that if you want.”

  Boyd shook his head at the liberties Silvie had taken, knowing exactly why she wanted lacings on the front. He was just happy that it wasn’t a zipper—or something worse he hadn’t considered. Boyd briefly wondered if tear-away Hero Suits were a thing.

  “I’ll let you know if I want to change it,” he said. “We’ll humor Silvie… for now.”

  It didn’t take long for him to figure out the clasps on the sides or the back which held a vertical strap in place that attached the belt to the pauldrons. That strap ran straight up the spine where it formed a ‘Y’ connection just above where his wings joined his back, where a normal person's shoulder blades would be. There was an aerodynamic pod-like object, about the size of both of his fists, mounted to the strap. It sat in the space between his wings and would lie mostly flat against his back.

  Another strap ran along the upper back, just below his neck, almost like a rigid yoke around the back of his neck—likely there to stabilize the large, shining pauldrons. Twisting a simple knob on the clasp disconnected one strap of the belt along with the vertical strap with a click.

  Boyd caught the belt as it fell away, slowly lowering it to the ground. As he did, Boyd realized it was not the leather it appeared to be. Examining it more closely revealed it was made similarly to the metal plates, just with a finer and less obvious woven pattern.

  “What are the straps made of?” Boyd asked, while looking closely at one of them—as in holding it up a couple of inches in front of his eyes. It looked exactly like a high-quality black leather.

  “It has the same composition as most Hero Suits,” she said. “There's a bunch of titanium, a decent amount of crystalline carbon, some iron and tungsten, and then tiny amounts of a bunch of other stuff to make it work while adjusting the appearance and other physical properties.”

  Tinker shrugged. “Essentially, it’s a metal that the weaver has tricked into looking and behaving like leather. I could go into the science behind it, but most people find it boring,” Tinker explained with her back still firmly turned.

  Boyd set the belt down. The thick tassets clicked together, but the sound seemed muted—which was likely an intentional feature. Boyd wondered if there was an unseen layer of rubber at the strike points, but pushing a finger between the plates didn’t support that hypothesis.

  It felt like smooth metal. He shrugged it off. He didn’t need to know how it worked as long as it worked. His mouth betrayed him, though.

  “I can’t promise I can follow along, but if you like talking about science, I’ll listen anytime.” Boyd bit the last word off, unable to stop the words once they began.

  He examined his mind, seeking the source. Boyd had not decided to say those words—not consciously. While the words weren’t untrue, and he had considered saying something along those lines, he’d deliberately decided not to.

  He’d discarded the thought because it came from that part of his mind that was interested in seeing things progress further with Tinker. He figured it came from his Changed mind, although he couldn’t be certain of that.

  A Changed could never be sure which thoughts were influenced by that other part of themselves, or what came from their human mind. Boyd the human, was happy with Silvie and had accepted Kitsune. He did not want to permanently alter the minds of any more women. He figured any thought to the contrary must come from his Changed mind—or so he fervently insisted to himself.

  That still didn’t provide an answer to why he’d said those words, though.

  Tinker replied after several moments. “Maybe another time? Right now you are putting your suit on for the first time. That’s the focus... now.”

  Although her tone was friendly and professional, he could hear a certain girlish delight in it. It confirmed Boyd’s fear—that the words had been taken as evidence of more than a friendly interest in her. It frustrated him that he couldn’t figure out why he’d said them. That frustration, however, was quickly being replaced by a cold fear.

  If that thought came from his Changed mind, and he’d said it—even though his human mind had discarded it—did that mean his Changed Mind was gaining control? Was he about to go Primal? Had it already started? Had he already gone Primal?

  He had been warned that it sometimes happened without the Changed even noticing it. They just start listening to their primal drives, and people got hurt. Well, people almost always got hurt. Boyd’s thoughts raced through these questions and fears—right up until he got very dizzy and stumbled as his vision flickered in and out of blackness.

  “What?” Boyd asked, glancing around and trying to remember what he’d been doing.

  “Is something wrong?” Tinker asked with her back still turned.

  “Oh, no,” Boyd replied as he remembered what he was supposed to be doing.

  He was putting on his brand-new suit for the first time. It was exciting, and in his excitement, he’d slipped up and flirted with Tinker. It wasn’t a big deal, though. She was a very nice girl and so very smart, after all.

  Boyd’s thoughts came to a screeching halt. He very carefully didn’t refer to women as girls—even in his mind. It was something he’d trained out of himself a long time ago. Something was very wrong in his head. He threw everything he could into his Mental Domination, using it to shut down his own mind.

  “Who is there?” Boyd roared into his own mind.

  He caught a glimpse of something, a psychic tendril of some kind. It slipped away, though, before he could get a better look… almost like it dissolved into smoke as his Power descended on it. It was a weak connection—one that could only nudge him and not control him.

  There was no real way to judge how long it had been there, save for the fact that it would not have survived the multiple uses of his Mental Domination on himself in the fight earlier today. The connection was too insubstantial, laid by a very skilled and likely highly-ranked Mental Powered. To have done it over even a moderate distance, they would have to be A-ranked at the least. Even then, they would likely have to be here inside The Tower.

  “W-what’s wrong?” Tinker asked, her voice trembling. “Did I mess something up? Oh dear... I am so sorry! I-ca…” She hiccupped, sounding like she was about to cry. “I can fix it!”

  Boyd blinked again, that was a pretty intense reaction until he realized that he was growling quite menacingly. He stopped and literally shook himself, resettling his wings and flicking his tail to expel some of his anger.

  “Ah... no… I was just under some kind of mental assault. You didn’t do anything wrong,” he reassured the tiny inventor once he’d gained control of his anger.

  Boyd needed more information to decide where his anger belonged. Unfortunately, he didn’t have an earpiece in, he’d taken it out before starting to cook. He’d also discarded his FDU upon entering their suite.

  “Is the lab tied in for audio calls?” he asked.

  “Wait! You were being attacked? What happened? Who? Why?” The words spilled out of Tinker as she turned around with a panicked expression on her doll-like face.

  Boyd stood from where he’d dropped to one knee as he grumbled, “I don’t know, but if I had to guess… it was someone within The Authority. That’s based on the thoughts they were promoting. Give me one second…”

  He stepped away from the mannequin, figuring he’d have a better chance in the lab itself. “Call Royce and connect Silvie,” Boyd called out, hoping the voice-controlled AI that ran the suite upstairs was present here in the lab, as well.

  There was no indication whether it had worked or not until Royce’s vaguely confused voice projected from speakers somewhere nearby. “What’s up, kid?”

  “What’s up is…” Boyd started.

  Silvie’s voice cut him off, “Is something wrong, Darling?”

  “Yes,” Boyd sighed. “Would either of you know why someone was just in my head promoting certain thoughts? Certain thoughts that I am not interested in pursuing at this time?” Boyd tried to get his point across without alerting Tinker to the fact that she’d been the topic of those thoughts.

  “Ah, did someone force you to say what you said about listening to me talk about science?” Tinker asked dejectedly.

  Boyd sighed again, he probably should have known better than to try and slip something past the little genius. Boyd scolded himself internally for not waiting to make the call when he was alone, or addressing Silvie in person. He was just so pissed that he was being manipulated.

  He felt it through his Bond with Silvie before she said anything—equal parts rage and guilt.

  “I think I might know.” Her voice was filled with indignant frustration.

  It comforted Boyd to know that at least she didn’t approve of the invasion.

  “Good,” Royce growled, almost as angry as Boyd himself was from the sound of the single syllable, “because I was about to start cracking skulls. You better spill what you know, Silver.”

  Royce’s anger at Silver was made obvious by the way he practically spit her name. “You’ve been playing pretty fast and loose with your scheming, and you may have just crossed a line.”

  Even though the anger was in Boyd’s defense, it still upset him that it was being directed at Silvie. Of course, he also knew that Silvie hadn’t been behind it—while Royce did not. Boyd corrected the misunderstanding before his two oldest companions started to bicker.

  In the calmest tone he could manage, Boyd said, “She’s not behind it, Royce. She’s almost as mad about it as I am. You do owe us answers, Silvie. Who is messing with my head?”

  Boyd could hear an explosive sigh from her end of the call. “I… I can’t tell you.” She groaned. “This is messed up, and I will fix it, but I can’t tell you who it was. I can only promise that it will not happen again, and you will receive an apology from them when the time is right. Okay? For now, I am very sorry for my limited part in this. Has there… been a lot of damage?” she asked uncomfortably, like she wasn’t quite sure how to ask with Tinker present.

  Boyd glanced down a very upset Tinker. She was trying to hide it but was not doing a very good job. She wrung her hands in front of her and her wet-looking bottom lip stuck out in a cute little pout.

 

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