"Yes, sir, I am aware that you have the appropriate licenses." Kaleb said, trying to not roll his eyes.

"Then I don't see what the problem is."

"The problem, sir. Is that you don't have the requisite permits to operate this machine at this time and in this place."

"Wait. How does that make sense? I have the licenses, but then I also need a permit? What for?"

Kaleb sighed. "Because, sir, operating a Fifteen-foot mech on main street is off-putting to your fellow citizens. So while you have a license to own and operate this Civilian Model mech, you need a permit from City Hall stating where you can operate it."

"But I see those actual heroes on the Holo working their Mechs all the time."

"Yes sir, and they have the go ahead from both city hall and the HLO on where they can operate."

"This is bullshit! I know what this is! This is discrimination! Discrimination against the handicapped. This mobile suit is a high-end prosthesis! I NEED it in order to get around!"

Kaleb bit his lip hard as he stared up at the twelve foot robot glaring down at him. The call had come in over thirty minutes ago about some idiot that was operating a giant mech in the middle of their beat. The blocky looking thing was wandering around the shopping district like it was looking for something. Kaleb could appreciate the workmanship of the giant thing, but the law was the law. And thanks to Farrah in his ear, Kaleb knew what those laws were.

"Sir, if that were true, then it would be annotated on your operator's license," Kaleb said, looking down at his notepad.

He'd drawn a crappy doodle of the mech's blocky looking arm. Hoping to spark some ideas about his own new one. Roy was by their parked car, waiting patiently and, Kaleb assumed, trying not to laugh. He counted to five while pretending to read something off his notepad, before looking back up at the faceless mobile suit. The thing whirred and hissed noisily as it looked away from Kaleb's stare. Tapping his finger against his notepad, Kaleb said.

"It says right here that your license is only for ownership and display of this mobile suit. Not its operation."

"It was filed a week ago." Farrah whispered in his ear.

"And it's only a week old." Kaleb added.

"I…its…This isn't fair!" The man's voice practically screamed through the mobile suit's speakers. "My grandfather didn't leave me anything in his will except a shitty barn. Come to find out this thing was stashed in there. Now I can't even drive it?"

"You absolutely can drive it. You just need the correct forms and permits. Right now, you are sitting in what is supposed to be a museum piece. So I am going to have to ask you to exit the mobile suit and have this thing hauled back to your barn."

"WHAT?! I can't even drive it back?!"

"No. You can't drive it back, dumbass!" Kaleb shouted, losing his cool.

"Professor…" Farrah whispered warningly.

Taking a breath, Kaleb continued through clenched teeth. "A giant mech wandering through the city is sure to be off-putting to your fellow citizens. So I am going to need you to step out of the mobile suit and call a tow truck."

"Oh, man…"

The man's whiny tone was overshadowed by the sound of the mech going into shutdown mode. The giant thing took a knee, and its faceless head bowed low as its arms fell to its side. Kaleb winced at the noise the rusty thing made as the middle compartment opened with a hiss and he got his first look at the mech's operator. It was a balding white man in denim overalls. His chest was bare and Kaleb could see that the inside of the suit had not been properly air-conditioned. Straggly strands of hair were matted to the middle-aged man's face, and he practically glistened with sweat. Kaleb pinched his nose as the smell and heat hit him as the Mech's operator stepped out onto the sidewalk.

Kaleb flipped his notepad over to the ticket tab of its pages and started furiously writing up a citation. As he did, the pilot started unplugging himself from the robot's interior. When he saw what Kaleb was doing, the man became even more irate.

"Wait. You're writing me a ticket?!"

Sighing, Kaleb nodded. "Yes, sir. This is your first offense, but operating a giant mobile suit is-"

"NICE! Real fucking nice! Hey, why don't you stop actual crime, you fucking loser? Instead of old men riding around in their inheritance? Are you proud of yourself? Proud of the work you're doing?"

Kaleb ignored the man as he continued to berate him. All the while, Farrah was whispering in his ear that this was his last stop for the night. He and Roy had worked hard tonight, and now it was time to go back home. Visions of his projects flashed through his head, keeping him sane as he finished writing the ticket and passed it to the angry pilot. The man yanked it out of his hand and immediately turned his back on Kaleb. Not wanting to engage anymore, apparently.

Biting his lip in frustration, Kaleb walked back to his car and a smirking Roy. He gave his sidekick the finger as he heard the mech's pilot calling a tow truck. Overhead, their drones buzzed away in the dark sky. Over his earpiece, Farrah congratulated on a job well done.

"Nice work tonight, Professor. You as well, Roy."

"Meh, it was a slow night." Kaleb shrugged as he heard the pilot shouting about how much a tow was going to cost. "Are we good to go, Farrah? Or do we need to wait until knucklehead here gets a ride?"

"You're fine. The cops are around the corner and our drones will stay on him. The late-night patrol team is a few minutes out. So if anything happens, we're covered."

Kaleb blew out an exhausted breath as Roy did a fist-pump and hurried to get into the car. Aside from the robbery at the start of their night, the rest of the evening had been fairly calm. Just a few citations and a couple of rowdy kids. He and Roy had been kinda pumped to end their night with a giant robot fight, but the whole affair had turned annoyingly mundane rather quickly.

Joining Roy in the car, Kaleb quickly got himself squared away and then started the engine. They cruised past the irate mech pilot, making sure to lock eyes with the man before their car got to the corner and Kaleb turned them down a side street. Pointing them southward, Kaleb turned on the radio as Roy finally took his helmet off. The Moldi-metal made a popping sound as it came away from the kid's face and Kaleb once again caught the scent of a sweaty human.

"Phew! Dude, you need to get that thing ventilated or something," Kaleb said, rolling down his window.

"Yeah, no kidding. I didn't realize I'd sweat this much just wearing the thing." Roy nodded as he wiped a hand down his face.

"Claire says there are wipes in the glove box." Farrah said helpfully.

Roy quickly dove into the tiny drawer as Kaleb watched the road ahead of them. The quiet night, the easy patrol, all of it had felt too bland. He was half-expecting some kind of disaster to hit them at any moment. It was always when you calmed down that the game tried to hit you with the dramatic turn. Kaleb knew it was his paranoia acting up again, but it always paid to be on your toes. Especially as a hero.

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"Professor, your guest has made herself at home in your workshop. Maybe you should buy her some amenities while you are out?"

"Amenities? What, like a toothbrush and comb?"

"Or shampoo for her feathers and maybe a nightgown? A blanket and pillow probably wouldn't go amiss either." Farrah said.

"Hey! What's wrong with my pillow and blanket?" Roy griped as he pulled the hand wipe away from his face.

Kaleb nodded at the white square that was now covered in Roy's sweat and tainted slightly black. Roy grimaced at the picture and conceded the point. As the kid went back to wiping himself down, Kaleb turned them toward a late-night convenience store and quickly bought Clara a few things. He was in and out fairly quickly and by the time he was back in the car, Roy had made himself comfortable. He'd taken off his leather jacket, his gloves and was now sitting shoeless in the passenger seat.

Kaleb passed the weary teen a bottle of water as he placed the plastic bags in the back seat. Starting the car up again, the two of them fell into a companionable silence as they drove back home. Kaleb kept his eyes peeled for any last-minute attacks or hang-ups, but nothing came. Once he was turning into the airstrip that housed their hangar, Kaleb finally eased up and heaved a sigh of relief.

"Gramps used to get like that," Roy said. "Like a coiled spring all night until he walked in the door. Then it was like a release of pressure and he damn near flopped to the floor."

"It's a dangerous line of work." Kaleb nodded, to which Roy just raised an eyebrow. "Okay, maybe not tonight. But you've seen the worst of it, remember? Sometimes it pays to be a little extra cautious."

"And sometimes you need to relax and trust your Handler." Farrah griped in his ear. "The streets are calm and our patrols are out there. Enjoy the peace, Professor."

Kaleb said nothing as he maneuvered Claire and Two Gun's car into a parking space and shut off the engine. The two of sat in silence for a second until Kaleb sighed and tapped Roy on the shoulder.

"You did good tonight, kid."

"It wasn't that hard, Doc."

"No. But you helped a lot, anyway. Thanks."

Roy blushed up to his ears as he looked down at his faceless mask. "Thanks, Doc. That means a lot."

"You staying here or you headed home?"

"I'm going to rest up a bit and then head home. Kinda want to tell dad about how my first official patrol went."

"Actually, I need him here for a little while anyway," Farrah interrupted. "The job's not done until y'all file your reports."

"Great…" Kaleb sighed as Roy grinned at him.

Both of them exited the car and passed through the bright blue barrier into the Hangar. The sounds of the busy hangar immediately filled Kaleb's ear, and any anxious feelings about the night's patrol were sapped from his body. The hum of the generators, the low roar of the NPCs conversing. Everything about their headquarters made him feel at home. He and Roy stopped by the Workshop real quick to offload their loot and weapons before heading to the Command Center platform and filing their reports.

As he did, Kaleb got to watch the Mech Pilot on the drone camera still loading up his giant robot. Abby and Jar-lock were on-camera overseeing things as the pilot ranted and raved about the injustice of it all. With a grin on face, Kaleb listened to the drone footage as he filled in the bland reports on their patrol. It was as dry and boring as the actual patrol itself, but once he and Roy were done, Kaleb waved goodbye to his sidekick and hurried back to the Workshop.

Clara was huddled in the corner on Roy's cot, reading a book. Her feathered arms were around her body, creating a weird brown shield. She reminded Kaleb of a nesting bird sitting on her nest. Which probably wasn't far off. He held up the bag full of store-bought amenities he had picked up for her as she glanced at his entrance.

"Got some stuff for ya."

"Thank the Gods. Give it here. I was almost afraid I'd have to suffer through the night without a shower."

Quietly thanking Farrah for mentioning the species-specific toiletries, Kaleb let the bag be snatched from his hands. "There's also a pillow and a soft blanket. Apparently, normal ones can be rough on your feathers?"

"Oh, they can be Hell. Thank you so much for this," Clara said, giving Kaleb a one-armed hug and then running from the room.

Figuring she was rushing off to shower, Kaleb looked around the quiet shop and realized that it was actually empty for the first time in a while. Terrance and Marie must have rushed off home for the night. The homunculi were quietly moving about the place, and Daivor was seated on Kaleb's workbench, working away. But otherwise, the workshop was blissfully quiet. Quickly checking the in-game time, Kaleb decided he had enough free time to work on something before he crashed for the night and sat down at his workstation.

Daivor looked up at him and grinned around his pipe. "Evening, boss. Care to see what I've been working on?"

Kaleb could see the remains of a circular device in the gnome's lap. Apparently, he had been taking something apart. "What is it?"

"It's a repulsor. I've been wondering why the batteries stabilized better than the repulsors themselves. I mean, the kid and I kinda threw those batteries together. But they worked! So why do the repulsors keep exploding?"

"You've solved it?!"

"Almost. I think it's a combination of the amount of solution used and the container. We've been funneling power through the repulsor and letting it sit there. What if we cycle the solution through fast enough that the thing doesn't blow, but slow enough that it still powers the device?"

"Would that work?"

Daivor shrugged and held up what he had been working on. "I don't know. But either way, we need to rework the repulsor itself. So I've been working on this."

Kaleb looked down and saw a circular frame around the bare repulsor's core. It was like a cage for the liquid tube was wrapped around the bright blue puck that was the repulsor. Kaleb could see what the gnome was trying to do. The frame had several contact points designed to dig into the solution tube. As the Weikacol flowed past and around the repulsor, it would charge the thing. Hopefully without exploding. It was a solid idea.

He started looking around for the bucket of solution and found it over by Roy's station. Daivor stood and started getting things ready as the Homunculi seemed to sense that something was happening and hurried to help. The hum of the hangar was joined by the sound of Kaleb's shop coming to life again. His feet thudded against the tiled floor as he drug the bucket over. The sound of metal scrapping against metal came from Daivor, dragging the MetFlex tube closer. Even the homunculi footsteps seemed to echo in the space.

Immediately Kaleb and Daivor noticed a problem, though. The MetFlex tube was too big for the guides in the frame. Daivor blew out a breath of annoyance at himself, but Kaleb just shrugged it off as he began looking for smaller tubes. Unfortunately, the MetFlex tubing seemed to be all the same size.

"Shit." Kaleb said, putting down the final bin he'd been checking.

"Let's just use a different tube. For confirmation's sake. Then once that's done, we can focus on shrinking the tubing."

Kaleb rubbed the back of his head as he nodded. "Yeah, that's fair. Marie is working on something too that might be able to replace the MetFlex."

Daivor nodded. "I'll see about that in the morning. For now, just go with the clear plastic tube. We've got that in spades and in multiple sizes."

Kaleb agreed and quickly found what they needed. The clear plastic tube shaped in a circle and snapped into the frame Daivor had made with a satisfying click. Kaleb then checked that all the contacts had punched through. As he did, a thought came to him.

"We'll need to find a way to seal the contact points. Just in case. I don't want to get a leak."

"Noted."

Once that was done, Kaleb grabbed a small sample of the liquid and a funnel. Cutting a small hole in the circle of tubing, he waited for the homunculi and Daivor to signal they were ready. Daivor moved away as the homunculi held everything steady. Their flat faces nodded their readiness to Kaleb. So he placed the funnel in the hole he made and poured the solution into the tubing. The liquid seeped into the clear plastic and the homunculi raised the tube to make the liquid head down toward the repulsor. Daivor and Kaleb held their breath as the solution made contact with the repulsor's core.

As soon as it did, the repulsor flashed and the liquid in the tube came alive. It flashed through the tube and traveled around the small circle faster than Kaleb's eyes could see. The repulsor flashed bright blue a few times as the liquid passed by over and over, picking up speed each time. Eventually the repulsor was alive with power and its hum joined the noise of the hangar.

Kaleb wanted to cheer, but the sound of liquid dripping came to his ears and he looked down. The clear plastic tubing was melting, and he swore.

"Fuck! Bucket!" he shouted.

Daivor leapt from the table and grabbed the bucket as the homunculi helped. Kaleb moved the tubing over the bucket. He let the Weikacol solution and melting plastic drip into the bucket as he gave Daivor a smile.

"It worked!"

Daivor humphed as he crossed his arms. "It did, but we forgot how hot the solution gets once powered up."

Kaleb wouldn't let the gnome smother their victory, though, saying with a smile. "It still worked!"

Daivor's sour face melted into a grin of his own as he nodded. "You're damn right it did. Now we just need to keep at it."

"I'll make coffee." Kaleb said as he let the last of the solution flow out into the bucket.

Once that was done, he set the remains of the tubing on his counter and the workshop came alive with sounds once again. They had found a workaround. Now all they needed to do was refine it until it was perfect.

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