Yuki sat quietly in a dim room, staring at the wall of softly glowing screens that floated before him. He rested his chin on his hand, his arm on his desk, as he watched numbers and letters scroll across the screens. They typed themselves, lines upon lines being written. His eyes followed them, cold and unwavering.
Then they stopped. The cursor blinked in place for a small mont before a clear ding rang out and a check mark appeared on each of the screens. The sides of Yuki’s mouth twitched up at the sight.
“Holy shit, it worked,” Damian gasped beside him. “It fucking worked.”
“Don’t get too excited yet,” Yuki replied, his voice calm. “This doesn’t an the thing will actually work. Just that the software couldn’t find anything wrong.”
“Gah, you’re right. I just want this stupid thing to work by now,” Damian growled. “We worked on this thing for how long? Three months?”
“I’m willing to work on this thing for three years if necessary,” Yuki shrugged. “That’s how these things work. You shouldn’t rush them.”
“To be completely honest, I’ve been working on this partly out of rage. It’s your passion project. I’m helping because I want to see this stupid thing work.”
“I know,” Yuki smirked. He reached out and touched the black tal gauntlet that rested on the workbench in front of him. A soft blue light emitted from the chinks. “Let’s test it out now.”
His finger lifted the small cable attached to the side of the gauntlet. He considered it for a bit before electing to keep it attached. If sothing didn’t work, he didn’t want to have to resync everything again. He pressed a button made of the sa material as the entire gauntlet, blending in seamlessly. The gauntlet opened, the tal wrist plates unlocking and the entrance of the tal glove expanding like a blooming flower.
‘That part works perfectly. This ti. I might need to test it a few more tis later.’
He slipped his left hand into the open gauntlet, the soft lining inside of it cushioning it. The entrance imdiately tightened and ford a seal around his wrist. It was comfy, not too tight but not allowing the gauntlet to move. The entirety of the tal glove morphed and shifted until it molded itself to fit snugly around Yuki’s hand. He lifted his hand, the weight of the gauntlet barely noticeable.
‘Good. It’s not strangling my hand like last ti.’
Yuki began to do a series of hand and finger exercises, twisting his fingers and wrist about as he made odd shapes and poses. Then he made more jerky motions, quickly shifting his fingers’ positions. The gauntlet responded perfectly. It followed his movents, moving fluidly without any delay. It felt just like he was just moving his hand normally.
‘Perfect. There was a small delay last ti. I’m glad we managed to get rid of that.’
“It’s working,” Damian muttered, his eyes following every movent Yuki made.
“Let’s test out how well it holds up in what it was designed to do now,” Yuki said. He stood up from his recliner. “Do we still have unused plates or did we go through them all?”
“We still have so,” Damian replied, standing up as well. He jabbed his thumb towards a corner. “They should be there.”
Yuki went over, his left hand still wriggling as he tested the gauntlet. He found a few tal plates that he had used to test the puncture strength of various weapons. Taking one, he tightened a clamp on each side which held it firmly in the air.
“Here goes,” he said quietly.
He wound his left arm back and shot it forward, smashing it to the tal plate with a resounding bang. A small shock traveled up his arm at the impact and the tal plate warped. He drew his arm back and inspected the results.
“Good protection,” he said, flexing his hand. “I barely felt the impact. The tal plate was complete deford. I think I could have punctured it if I used more power. The gauntlet looks good as well. No obvious damage from the impact.”
“Perfect,” Damian replied. “The thing wor—”
His comnt was interrupted by a rapid series of bangs as Yuki continually punched the tal plate. After a few seconds, Yuki withdrew and examined the gauntlet again.
“Still nothing. Seems to be okay then,” he comnted.
“Okay,” Damian said.
Yuki pressed the button and removed the gauntlet from his hand. He went back to the workbench and grabbed a prosthetic hand that he had made before modeled after his own. He slipped the gauntlet over it. Then he shot out with his right hand, a knife flying toward it which he grabbed by the handle.
“Let’s test the other protective qualities now,” he said.
Eyeing the gauntlet, he stabbed downwards with the knife. The blade hit the back of the tal glove before bouncing off, leaving a small gouge in the tal plating. Yuki examined the knife and found minor cracks forming in the blade. Picking up the prosthetic hand with the gauntlet equipped, he watched as the gouge left by the knife disappeared.
“I need to make a new knife,” Yuki said. “The gauntlet broke it.”
“So the protection is pretty good then,” Damian nodded. “I an, that should have been a given. The problem was with the movent. Not the material.”
“It’s always good to double check,” Yuki shrugged. “The repairing properties also seem to be working quite well. Get
the bracer.”
Yuki heard the sound of tal being moved and tools being pushed aside as Damian looked around for the bracer.
“Here you go,” he said, handing it to Yuki.
“Thanks.”
The bracer was made of the sa thing as the gauntlet and was designed the sa way. Yuki placed it over his left forearm and watched as the tal bracer surrounded it, shifting a bit until it fit snuggly. He flipped his arm to reveal the underside of his forearm. He twitched his wrists and a knife shot out from a concealed sheath in the bracer.
“The bracer still works properly,” he said. “That’s good. Let’s link it with the gauntlet know and see if anything sses up.”
Glancing over at Damian, he saw that the dwarf had already removed the tal gauntlet from the prosthetic hand. He took the tal glove with a nod and slid his hand into it. The gauntlet closed and conford to his hand. He stared at the two pieces, the gauntlet and the bracer, as the small gap between them closed and soon lit up with a soft blue light. A faint smile appeared on Yuki’s lips as he moved his hand and arm about.
“Perfect,” he said.
“Works?” Damian asked.
“Like a charm. For now.”
“Want
to copy over the new edits to the other gauntlet?” he asked. “I’ll change the necessary stuff of course.”
“Go ahead,” Yuki nodded. “I’ll put these two pieces with the others now.”
He slowly removed the two tal armour parts, the two still connected to each other. Then he went over to the cabinet that sat in the corner of the lab and put them back where they were.
“Here’s the other one,” Damian said, handing Yuki the right gauntlet. Yuki took it and put it away as well. “So we did it?”
“Probably,” Yuki replied. “It’s not completely tested yet, but it works now. We did.”
“Fuck yeah!” Damian exclaid, pumping his fist into the air. “I can’t believe the two of us actually did it. In three months as well. Hell yeah!”
“You were just complaining,” Yuki said.
“Well, of course. To be completely honest, I was kind of working on this partly out of hate,” he shrugged. “The stupid thing wouldn’t work so I kept smashing my head at it because I hate it when things don’t work, you know.”
“Ahem,” a voice called out from speakers hidden throughout the workshop. “‘The two of us’? What am I then?”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. The three of us,” Damian corrected. “You helped a lot as well. I’ll give you that.”
“How about Tobias? He did a little sothing as well~,” Uriel said, her voice teasing.
“Nah, not him. That stupid bugger probably broke the goddamn gauntlets,” Damian growled.
“Uriel, what’s the ti?” Yuki asked.
“If it’s about the eting, it’s about an hour from now,” she replied.
“We have a eting?” Damian said, frowning.
“I didn’t notify anyone about it yet,” Yuki said.
“Oh. I thought forgot again.”
“But we’ll be having a eting in an hour. You can rember that, right?”
“Of course, of course. I’m going to the ss hall for a bit though. I need a drink.”
“Go ahead. I need to make a few calls. Uriel, tell the others to gather.” He glanced over at the tal cabinet. “Now that we’re done with this project, I think we can go forward without any hesitation.”
Reviews
All reviews (0)