Kaleb waved to Scott the Salamander as he pulled the heated plate out of the fire. The alien alloy glowed red as he used the tongs to bring the bit of metal to the anvil. The piece was mostly shaped the way they needed. He just had to add the finishing touches. Setting the piece down, he used one hand to hold it in place as his other reached for the hammer. His broken fingers were still a bit of an issue, but he had enough for a decent hold.

"You want me to hold that, Professor?" Terrance asked.

Kaleb was about to say 'no' but his aggravation at being unable to find his forging hammer stymied him. Taking his eyes off what he was doing, he looked around the nearby desks and tables for what he was looking for. A pair of hands eagerly grabbed the tongs from him as Kaleb thoughtlessly let go. He thanked Terrance without looking as he continued his search, eventually making a noise of annoyance.

"Where the hell is my hammer?!"

His question was punctuated by the loud noise of Marie hammering. Turning to glare at the girl, Kaleb spotted all four forging hammers arrayed on her workstation. The girl was so engrossed in what she was doing that she didn't even look up at him as he stomped over. Her magical tortoise, Sebastian, glanced up at him from beneath her station. The big thing snapped at him lazily before he looked up at his master. Marie seemed to register Sebastian's gaze as she looked at the giant tortoise and then at Kaleb. Her hazel eyes held a question as she stopped hammer and asked.

"What?"

Kaleb waved a hand at all the forging hammers. "Seriously?"

"Each one has a different feel, boss, and they all give me a different, necessary swing." Marie argued.

"That's fine. But at least put them back when you're done. I was just using the damn thing."

"Oh, come on! You know that heating the alloy takes a while. I was finished using it before you even pulled the thing from the forge."

"So why isn't it back on my workbench?"

Marie got a chagrined look on her face as she darted her eyes all around. Spotting Sebastian, Marie apparently found an out.

"Sebastian was supposed to take it back, but he needed a break."

Kaleb raised an eyebrow as Sebastian made a hurt noise, bashing his head against Marie's leg. The small woman staggered a bit before giving the tortoise a calming look. Kaleb rolled his eyes at the byplay and grabbed his hammer off Marie's desk. He was going to reprimand her further, but Sebastian was now chewing on the girl's jeans. So he decided to leave it. Waving the two off, Kaleb hurried back to his own station to find Terrance pulling the metal from the forge again.

"It was cooling fast, boss. You need to finish up."

"Yeah, I got it. Just hold it steady, alright?"

Terrance nodded as Kaleb reared back and started hammering the bit of shaped metal. He was currently finishing the metal covering for his forearm. Which meant it needed to be the correct shape, but also have the necessary holes for the power lines. Most of the electronics for his Spike Launcher, Shocky, and the Repulsor were stored there. So the space needed to be just right.

Elsewhere in the lab Clara and Roy were going over the Weikacol solutions attributes and trying to find the prefect balance for his arm. Apparently, blowing up something was the bird-professor's final straw when it came to practical application for some reason. So instead, she was repeatedly testing the liquid under different conditions. Meanwhile, Daivor was on Kaleb's desk running the Synth-muscle cords through their frame. The black corded muscles were pulled tight around the arm's shoulder, and Kaleb couldn't wait to see them in action.

He finished shaping the outer edges of the plate and called for a Punch. Terrance immediately handed over the tool and moved back into position as Kaleb readied to place the holes he would need. Not only did he need the holes for the power lines, but he wanted this particular plate to be hinged so he could work on his Spike Launcher. It would allow for easier access and make reloading smoother. With the metal still hot, Kaleb quickly hammered out the holes and checked and then double-checked his work. Once that was done, he nodded at Terrance, and the boy used the tongs to move the plate toward the quenching tank, but Kaleb stopped him.

"Whoa! Alien alloy, remember? We don't need to quench. Just let the plate cool and we can move on to the next bit."

"Gotcha, boss." Terrance said, setting the plate aside.

"Hey, can I have that hammer back now?" Marie called, making Kaleb rub his eyes.

"Someone remind me to buy Marie her own set of hammers. Cause apparently one isn't enough."

"It most certainly isn't." Marie agreed as Kaleb felt something tug at his pant leg.

Looking down, he spotted Sebastian waiting there with his mouth open. Shaking his head, Kaleb placed the handle of his hammer in Sebastian's mouth and sent the beast on his way. Terrance was prepping the next ingot, so Kaleb used the time to look around. Clara and Roy had multiple vials and beakers of Weikacol solution out on Roy's desk. They were using smaller repulsors and other electronics to test the power draw. Daivor and a veritable sea of Homunculi were crawling over his new arm's frame like a bunch of ants. Daivor gave him a two-finger salute when he caught his eye, but quickly went back to work. The sound of hammering brought Kaleb back around to Marie, and he meandered over.

He hadn't really been looking at what she was making before, and he needed a bit of a break. As he got closer, he realized what she was working on was fairly small. Unlike the armor she had made before. Now she seemed to be working on a bit of metal barely bigger than his forearm and as skinny as a pole. When he looked closer, he realized it was, essentially, a pole.

"What you doing there, trouble?" Kaleb wondered.

Marie didn't even glance up as she brought her hammer down on the thin bit of metal. Her arms were covered in the rock-like armor from Sebastian's power. The ability made the woman's slight arms bulge out like she was some weird rocky alien. Sebastian had settled at her feet again as Marie worked. Once she was finished attacking the tiny bit of metal like it called her a nasty name, Marie finally answered him.

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"Working on what we were talking about." She said simply.

Kaleb stared at her in confusion for a second before glancing back down. Marie huffed as she explained.

"A flexible, sturdy metal that hasn't been used before?"

It took Kaleb a few seconds to remember her notes on the subject, but when he did, he looked back down at the bit of metal again.

"And this is what you came up with?"

"It's what WE came up with." Marie said, gesturing to Sebastian as the turtle gazed up at him smugly. "I know fuck-all about chemicals treatments and whatever. But Sebastian thinks that if I use his power enough, we can find something similar to what we're looking for."

Kaleb put his chin in his broken robot hand and then immediately pulled his hand away as the metal scratched his face. Coughing awkwardly, he looked down at the metal in thought.

"It doesn't require a special metal, does it? We have a lot of junk, but not much in the way of alien alloys."

"Don't worry, Professor. I'm not using your precious alloys. I just need to practice with the basic stuff first. The goal is to make it as flexible as possible and then quench it quickly to get it tougher. But first I need to increase my bond with this guy. Which means I need to forge, forge, and forge some more."

"Then why don't you forge something interesting? What's with the tube?"

"I figured the best way to train was to try to create what we're looking for. Even if I can't do it yet."

"So you're making tubing?"

"I'm TRYING to make flexible metal tubing. For your arm, Doc. That way, you won't have to rely on the LED tubing that Daivor found."

"They are not LEDs!" the gnome shouted from over near Kaleb's workbench.

Both Marie and Kaleb gave the gnome doubtful looks before they returned to their own conversation. Marie's project interested Kaleb greatly, but he still had so much to go through. Not to mention a patrol coming up that was going to pull him away from his jobs in the first place. Marie read his face and snickered at him.

"This is why you have us, Doc. To train and do some of the grunt work, remember?"

"Discovering a new metal isn't grunt work, Marie. That would be huge."

"Well, I don't know how new it'll be. But it will be something we haven't seen before, anyway. That's if I can get the damn pressure right and the ability from Sebastian."

At the sound of his name, the big tortoise rubbed his head against Marie's leg and she reached down to pat his scaly head. Sighing to himself, Kaleb nodded.

"Yeah… Well, if you need anything, let me know. But stop stealing hammers."

Marie just grinned at him as he made his way back to the forge. Terrance was standing in the heat of the forge as Scott blazed within it. The heat overwhelmed the runes Kaleb had placed on the forge and warmed Kaleb's face as he approached. It actually felt damn good to Kaleb, and he wanted nothing more than to bask in the warmth. But Terrance interrupted his basking.

"Scott's going to need a break here soon. He wants to keep going, but that alloy takes a lot out of him."

Kaleb nodded as the heat washed over him gently. "Then let him take a break. There's no rush. Especially if it's wearing down our friend there."

Scott sat inside the forge looking at them lazily. To Kaleb, the salamander seemed to be enjoying its time, bathed in the fires of the forge. But he trusted the animal's partner to know when to call it quits. With a nod, Terrance gestured for Scott to cut it, and the heat from the forge died down considerably. Kaleb almost regretted his decision as the warmth left his body. But as Scott climb out of the forge and sat idly on Terrance's table, he could almost see how exhausted the little guy was.

Terrance quickly put on a pair of heavy-duty gloves and started petting his partner as it sat on his table, panting. Kaleb noted that Terrance's table was covered in fire-resistant padding. He left the two to their downtime as he picked up the plates they had completed and returned to his own desk.

He put the plates under his workstation as he watched Daivor and the Homunculi working away. Strands of synth-muscle crisscrossed over the top of the frame and sat ready to be plugged in. Daivor had left enough space to work on the rest of the internals though, which Kaleb was grateful for. Seeing him watching them, some Homunculi waved their flat arms at him. Daivor scowled and hurriedly got them back to work, but then the gnome leaned against the inside of his arm and lit his pipe.

"We are reaching the limits of what we can put in, boss. Anymore and we'll just start getting in the way of the internals. Which we still need to work on, by the way."

"I know, but we can't build the power regulators and other stuff until we know the limits of the solution."

"Science takes time, Professor." Clara called from Roy's workstation.

"I wasn't complaining, just pointing it out." Kaleb called back as he rolled his eyes at Daivor.

The gnome puffed away at his pipe before gesturing down at Kaleb's broken metal fingers. "We should fix that before you go out tonight."

"I know, but there's just so much more stuff to do."

"Not right now there isn't and you don't want to be out there missing a trigger finger."

"But I still need to build the Shocky Mark 4 and the Mark 2 Spike Launcher."

"Both of which can wait, Doc. Let's get those fingers installed first. Then while you're gone, I can get the stuff ready for the Mk 2 Launcher."

"Fair." Kaleb said, rubbing the back of his head.

There was so much work to do alongside his Hero work, but Kaleb was still having a great time. Even as his shoulders ached and his mind whirled with new jobs for all of them. As he looked around his workshop, his eyes stopped on Roy as the boy was slowly pouring liquid into a repulsor's power core. The thing whirred to life quickly and Clara quickly drained the solution back out again before anything could explode. Kaleb found the lack of explosion sad, but kept his mouth shut about that. Instead, he addressed Roy and shouted.

"Hey Sidekick, you going out with me tonight?"

Roy's head snapped up like a jack-rabbit and he almost dropped the repulsor he was holding. The thing was still live as he fumbled with it for a few seconds. Once he had everything under control, Roy stared at Kaleb and nodded eagerly.

"Seriously? You wanna take me?"

"You are my Sidekick. We need to start working together more. The neighborhood may be quiet now, but we all know things are going to pop off soon. You'll need to be on your A-game. Are you ready?"

"Fuck yeah, I'm ready. Let me get my stuff."

Kaleb opened his mouth to tell Roy they weren't leaving yet. But he didn't have the heart as he saw the boy start to suit up. Clara gave him a glare at having lost her assistant, but Kaleb could only shrug.

"Are you staying, Professor Clara? I have a room downstairs that I rarely use that you are free to use."

"Young Nova just offered me his cot in your workshop, Professor. Although I wouldn't say no to soft sheets and a warm bed."

"It might be a bit too warm, Clara. But if it is, then just turn off the heat lamps."

Clara looked confused for a second before she registered why he would need heat lamps. After it occurred to her, she nodded at him in thanks and then went back to work. Kaleb turned to his bench's computer and brought up the design specs for his new arm. The blueprint was filling in as they supplied the parts for the arm. They still had a short way to go.

"We'll be done before we know it, boss."

"Yeah. I know."

"But first, we have to fix your fingers."

"Right," Kaleb said idly, staring down at his broken metal fingers. An idea came to him as he looked at the skeletal frame of his broken hand. "My fingers…"

Kaleb's mind whirled with even more gadgets and inventions, but then something smacked him in his head. He had just enough time to blink and see a brown object zip back to Daivor's hand. The gnome caught his pipe and scowled up at him.

"No more jobs. Fingers first."

Kaleb sputtered, but the gnome wasn't hearing it as he wandered off, grumbling. Kaleb grinned at the gnome's back as he started imagining more toys. His new arm was going to have power to spare after all.

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