"No, I'm serious. I could have a finger with a laser attachment, maybe one with a lock-pick. It would be sweet."

"But, Doc, how would you keep them from getting damaged? It just seems like you'll be replacing your fingers every three days."

"Not if I properly reinforce them, and why three days?"

"I don't know, Doc. I just picked a number. Also, how would you reinforce them?"

Kaleb glanced at his metal fingers gripping the steering wheel of Two Gun and Claire's car. He and Daivor had completed the rush job on his digits. They were now plated with some steel they had lying around and the frames were bent back into shape. It wouldn't hold under too much scrutiny, but it was good for a simple patrol. Glancing back over at his partner, Kaleb wiggled his fingers in thought.

"I'd probably change out the metal and make them a little more solid. These metal plates over a stable frame have got to go. That was just all-around a bad idea."

Roy nodded as he fingered the underside of his flat Moldi-metal mask. The face-plate had conformed completely to the boy's face and muffled his words, but they made do.

"So you want to make your fingers denser and hide tiny gadgets in each one?"

"Well, right now, all I can come up with are laser fingers and the lock-pick idea. But, you know, any other way I can drain off some of that solution, right?"

Roy's silver encased head nodded idly. "I guess. Professor Strigian and I tried the lowest amount we could and that still nearly exploded the repulsor. It's just too damn powerful."

"Did y'all think of diluting it?" Kaleb asked as he turned the car down a side-street.

"First thing we tried. But it consumes any other liquid we try to mix it with."

"Consumes?"

"It literally burns off the diluting agent and goes about its day. Strigian said it was the oddest thing she had ever seen."

Kaleb shook his head. "We really need to research that stuff more. It's super powerful and I'm sitting here using it to power our generators and make batteries."

"Both were worthwhile endeavors, Doc. And to be fair, we don't really have the facilities to research the stuff effectively. Isn't that what the deal between us and TekNik is for?"

"It could be. I just am hesitant to hand over something like that to them. They clearly want it to compete with K-Tech, and we're an afterthought."

Roy idly played with a strap on his leg. The strap held the case holding his stun batons, and it shifted each time the boy messed with the strap.

"Isn't that good, though? I mean, we want K-Tech on the back foot and if we can do that while hiding behind TekNik, why not?"

"I just don't trust either of them." Kaleb groused as Roy switched to tapping his foot. "Are you nervous?"

Roy gave a muffled laugh. "A little. I mean, I did that scouting mission a while back. But this is our first patrol! You and me against the criminals of Blue Bluff. I'm so ready for it."

"I wouldn't get your hopes up, kid. With the new big bad holding all the gangs back, we're unlikely to see much action tonight."

Of course, that's when Farrah's voice erupted in both of their ears. "We've got a half-dozen people loading a truck full of suspected stolen goods down on main street."

Kaleb winced at the volume of Farrah's voice before he asked. "Suspected?"

"We're combing through the footage now. But the truck is outside a clothing store and the front window is busted open. So either these guys are Good Samaritans saving the shop owners' wares, or they are robbing the place."

"We're on the move." Kaleb said, taking the next right and stepping on the gas.

Roy next to him nearly vibrated out of his seat as Kaleb wound their car out of the back streets. Claire and Two Gun's car was a newer model than Kaleb's had been and was a smoother ride. But Kaleb missed his old cop car. It had style. This red sedan was fine, but annoyingly plain. He took another right down main street and rolled down his window, listening for their drones.

"We've got you," Farrah said in his ear. "You're north of the truck. Just keep heading south and you'll see it."

"Gotcha." Kaleb said, head half-out the window. "They confirmed criminals yet?"

"Yep. They broke into the store and started loading things up like it was Christmas. Not the brightest, this bunch. Should be a nice easy lay-up for the kid."

"You know, I've been in fights before, Farrah."

"Without the Super Groups' guidance or knowledge." Farrah said, leadingly. "We do not know of your past escapades and will only judge you based on your performance while in the field with your Super."

Roy looked at Kaleb, and he could feel the teenager rolling his eyes. Kaleb tried to suppress a grin, but it was futile. The bureaucracy was alive and well even in their own Super Group. Their target came into view down the long street. It was a large box truck with no logos or signage on it at all. At least not from where Kaleb could see.

"Hurry, Professor. They've spotted the drones and are going to make a break for it."

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"I don't like the idea of getting into a chase in this car, either." Kaleb said.

"You most certainly will not. Look what happened the last time you got into a car chase." Claire's voice snapped over the radio.

Kaleb chuckled as he listened to Farrah try to clear the comm channel and he stepped on the gas. They were within two blocks of the truck when he heard Roy's door open. Glancing at his sidekick, he saw Roy reaching down and turning on the repulsors strapped to his boots.

"I've got this, Doc."

Before Kaleb could question anything, Roy leaped from the car and held onto the door. The repulsors on his feet made the boy float next to the car as they grew closer to the truck. The criminals had clearly spotted them already, and Kaleb angled their car to swerve around the truck in the street. As they passed by, the sounds of gunshots echoed in the street, and Roy let go of the door. Kaleb had enough time to see the boy pirouette through the street like an ice skater before he had to hit the brakes.

Pulling the e-brake and twisting the wheel harshly, Kaleb drifted the car around the back of the truck. Bullets pinged off the car's body, and he heard Claire screaming about wanting her car back in mint condition. Kaleb ignored her as he pulled the car to a stop and got out, using the car as cover. Reaching into his lab coat, he pulled his Sun Gun. Milly, waking up from a nap in his arm, mentally gave him a poke.

Kaleb told his little pet to stay down as he returned fire on two men at the back of the truck. To the right side of the truck, he could see Roy still skating through the street, batons in hand. His Sidekick was doing a great job distracting the rest of the criminals. But he couldn't do it forever. Thankfully, the thugs were only using ballistic type weapons. So Kaleb crept around the front of his car and took a breath before charging out, gun blazing.

Two men stood, returning fire, at the back of the truck as Kaleb charged. One was a human male with dark hair and the other was an alien with green skin. Both men were wearing blue coveralls and wielding guns. The human held a pistol while the alien held the trigger down on a brown-colored Uzi. Kaleb's Sun Gun spat yellow balls of energy at the two as he felt their bullets hit his chest and thigh armor. Ducking his head into his lab coat for added protection, Kaleb screamed as he watched his shots take the alien in the shoulder and the human straight in the face.

He kept running even as both men went down. The sound of thudding footsteps brought his attention to two more criminals coming around the driver's side of the car. He could hear Roy fighting street-side as he charged into the two criminals before they could get their weapons up. Milly chittered away excitedly within his arm and Kaleb worried she'd gotten a little too excited as his arm whirred dangerously.

One woman with her hair in a bun tried to use her rifle as a club against Kaleb. But he caught the end of the gun with his robotic hand and fired multiple shots into her torso. The woman screamed and collapsed as her partner aimed his own weapon at Kaleb's head. Kaleb whirled the woman's weapon into her partner and knocked his pistol to the side. He tried to bring up his own weapon, but the man stepped in closer and held off Kaleb's gun arm.

Kaleb grabbed the man's shoulder to push him away just as Milly went nuts in his arm. The lighting Marmot sent a wave of electricity down Kaleb's arm just as his fingers gripped the criminal's body. The man went rigid before his eyes rolled up into his head and he collapsed to the sidewalk. Kaleb stared at his arm as it still sparked with electricity and grinned. He flexed his metal fingers as Milly happily whistled in his head.

"Taser fist." Kaleb muttered to himself.

Then he realized he couldn't hear Roy fighting anymore, and he called out. "Clear?"

"Clear, Doc!" Roy's muffled voice came from the other side of the car.

"I'm disabling the truck. Secure the criminals." Kaleb called back as he moved to the truck's cab.

He heard Roy snort loudly. "Is that because you forgot the bindings again?"

Kaleb said nothing as he stuck his head into the cab and grabbed the keys. Taking a cursory glance through the mess on the seat, he ignored his sidekick's laughter. Thoughts of an adhesive foam that shot out of his fingers to secure prisoners danced through his head as he swept the front seat for clues. He was digging through the glove box when Roy appeared at the driver's side door and nodded.

"Perps secured, Doc. Along with all weapons."

"Farrah?" Kaleb asked. "Weapons and Credits are ours, right?"

"Yes, Professor. Looting rights are yours, so long as they can't be proven to be stolen goods."

"Gotcha. Roy?"

"Guns?"

"Guns please."

"On it, doc."

Kaleb nodded as his sidekick hurried off again. He noted Roy was still using his repulsors to skate around. Shaking his head, he went back to investigating the truck's interior.

"I need to hurry with my own upgrades. My sidekick is almost cooler than me at this point." He muttered to himself.

"What do you mean, almost?" Farrah snarked in his ear. "Not only is he cooler, but his outfit is also on point."

"Sure, you'd say that. All black, with a padded armor torso and black pants. Not to mention a full-face mask. Gee, I wonder who he reminds me of?" Kaleb said sarcastically. "Not to mention him skating around on those damn repulsors."

"So what? He's got your gadgets and my perfect sense of style." Farrah said, before sniffling like she was crying. "Our boy has grown up so fast."

Kaleb rolled his eyes at Farrah's antics and shoved the junk back into the glove box. "I'm pretty sure the truck is stolen on top of everything else. But there's nothing showing where it's from. ETA on the cops?"

"They've put us on a list for pickup. But we are free to move on."

"Shouldn't we wait for the store owner at least?"

"That would be good optics." Farrah admitted. "I don't think the cops are in a rush to answer our calls tonight."

"Petty bastards." Kaleb complained as he dragged himself out of the truck and hopped down to the sidewalk.

He grinned as he noticed the criminals he beat still laying on the sidewalk. Roy had bound their hands and taken their weapons. But that wasn't all. His sidekick had also removed anything that looked like armor from all four criminals on his side. Which wasn't much, but Kaleb was proud of the boy's thinking.

Sweeping around the truck, Kaleb spotted Roy's two victims strapped to the front of the truck by one set of binders. Both human men were beaten unconscious with red welts and scorch marks all over them. Roy had also stripped them of anything of value. Grinning to himself, Kaleb returned to Claire and Two Gun's car, wincing at the bullet holes in its side.

Modern cars were a little more durable than his old clunker, but he figured he was going to be stuck filling some bullet holes once he and Roy got back. His sidekick was loading the back of the car up with the thug's clothing and their weapons. When he turned back around and saw Kaleb standing there, he nodded his metal-covered head excitedly.

"That worked out so well, Doc! I knew the repulsors would hold up."

Kaleb smirked. "You realize if they hadn't, you would be street-pizza right now, right?"

Roy waved him off. "Bah! It went great. Where to next?!"

"Now we wait for the store owner. I imagine the cops have informed them of the break-in and they might have a clue on whether this was a spur-of-the-moment type thing or if this is bigger."

"What are the odds this is just a small portion of a larger crime ring!?" Roy asked, nearly vibrating out of his helmet.

"Almost zero." Kaleb shook his head and leaned against the car. "These dumbasses were under-armed and under-prepared. This was probably some disgruntled patron or employee taking it out on their boss."

Roy's blank face fell, and he leaned against the car next to Kaleb. The pair of them stood in silence for a few moments until Roy looked up at Kaleb.

"Do you think you could fit a set of binders in your fingers?"

"I was actually thinking about quick-acting foam."

"To bind their hands together?"

"Yeah."

"It would have to dissolve, eventually."

"And be tough enough to hold them."

"Interesting idea. But I don't think it'll fit in a finger."

"I could make it work." Kaleb argued as with his sidekick as they waited for their next adventure of the night.

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