Kaleb awoke to the sounds of clanging metal and people's voices. It took him a few seconds to understand where he was, though. What met his blurry vision when he raised his head from his bed was a grey and silver room with blobs of color moving about it. Blinking away his sleep, he found that the blobs of color were his assistants and the silver room was the workshop. Raising his head higher, he smacked the bottom of his workstation and groaned.

Rolling out from under the metal table, Kaleb fell off the cot he had been sleeping on. Several nearby homunculi went scurrying away as the sound of clanging metal stopped. Kaleb heard someone address him, but his brain was still kicking on. He smacked his lips and blearily looked around. Roy and Clara were to his left, eyeing him strangely. While on his right, Marie and Terrance were both speaking at him. Part of his confusion was in trying to parse their overlapping voices. He waved them both off as he looked around for his coffee stash.

Thankfully, Daivor was standing ready with a prepared mug on Kaleb's worktable. He reached out for the steaming mug and quickly downed its scorching contents. His body warmed at the liquid and Kaleb hummed happily. Daivor was speaking to the two Hunters now, but Kaleb was focused on getting more coffee. Sleeping without his heat lamps normally made him extremely lethargic. But the heat from the forge helped a little. Still though, he needed his morning coffee.

"... feet under him. Then he'll answer both your questions." Daivor's voice was saying as Kaleb's brain finally started working.

"But I don't have a question. I just want to run a few alloy ideas by him." Marie's voice said.

"And I need some time off this week. A few of my friends are going on a hunt in the forest."

Kaleb raised a thumbs up in Terrance's direction as he found a thermos full of coffee and poured himself another mug. The tall teen cheered as Marie started in with the questions about alloy compositions. He tuned her out as he threw back his mug and then stretched languidly.

"... mixed with Trucium and Ucrine." Marie said, making Kaleb pause again.

"Wait, what are you doing? Those are alien chemicals."

Marie huffed. "I told you! Those are the ingredients for Daivor and Roy's Moldi-Metal and the MetFlex you were working with. I think they are what gives the metal its flexibility. Now, with the Moldi-Metal, the stuff only conforms to a shape once and then stays that way. It needs to be reheated to be shaped again, but it still can move slightly."

"Uh-huh." Kaleb nodded, trying to take in her words.

"So I need those chemicals and a few alien metals in order to figure out a flexible metal."

"What about Gallium? Have you looked into alloys of that?"

"It's too corrosive to other metals." Marie said, "and it's an Earth metal. I don't think the solution lies there."

"Okay, I'll see about getting you those compounds to work with."

"Boss, while Ucrine is going to be pretty simple, Trucium is restricted. Its handling conditions are very special and it takes a specific license to handle it."

Kaleb winced at the problem before Clara's voice cut into their conversation. "I can get you some."

All three of them turned to the bird woman as she looked over at them. Kaleb used that moment to pour and drink the last of the thermos' coffee. Marie huffed even louder as she asked.

"Why didn't you say that before?! I already told Roy what I was thinking of trying."

Clara's large owlish eyes blinked in confusion. "Did you? I wasn't listening. But if the professor needs some Trucium, I think the TekNik company could be persuaded to part with some."

Kaleb could see that Marie wanted to say something more, but he interrupted her. "Okay, good. Let's do that. We'll work out the details later. Marie, was that all you needed?"

The young Hunter glared across the room at Clara as she shook her head. "No, Professor. I also need several samples of enchanted metals."

Kaleb finished his mug of coffee and stared down at the empty cup. Willing it to refill itself. When it didn't, he blew out a breath and turned back to Marie.

"Why?"

"Because the Moldi-Metal is also slightly enchanted. So that may or may not have baring on its usefulness to me."

"It will." Daivor said. "The enchantments I gave Roy's helmet increase the malleability. It's why it still conforms to his face when he breathes."

"Well then, isn't that what you're looking for, Marie?"

"Not quite. But it's a start."

Kaleb nodded. "Okay then. Daivor and I will get on that in a minute. But first, I need to finish my arm and get some more coffee. When Clara gets the chemicals and compounds we need, we can turn our attention to your project. Okay?"

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"That's fine." Marie said tersely. But Kaleb could see a small smile on the young woman's face as she turned back to her forging station.

Kaleb looked down at his empty mug again, sighing dramatically. He heard Daivor scoff at him, but he ignored the gnome as he sat down at his workbench. Sadly setting down his mug and looking at the metal frame still sitting on his table, Kaleb tried to remember what they were doing last night. Seeing the several shredded and thin-downed tubes, his memory kicked in.

They had spent a good portion of the night testing out Daivor's circular design. It worked fantastically, but they had run into the problem of the MetFlex tubing being too big. Other tubes worked for a spell, but they quickly degraded under the Weikacol solutions' heated state. They needed a tough metal like the MetFlex that was also flexible. Kaleb groaned as he looked over at Daivor. The gnome was standing with his hands on his hips, nodding sagely.

"Yeah, we're kind of stuck until the kid can figure out her flexible metal idea."

"What about your Moldi-Metal? Could we shape that into a tube the right size?"

"It changes shape under extreme heat. The Moldi-Metal would be useless. Besides, we can't make anymore without those compounds Marie was talking about."

"Wait. That means we had Trucium at one point. Where did we get that?"

Daivor coughed into his fist as he glanced over in Clara's direction. "It was part of our underground supply. And it wasn't much. We barely had enough for testing and once we figured out, it did what we wanted, we didn't look back and used it all."

Kaleb nodded understandingly as he rubbed his face and glanced over at Clara and Roy. Roy was working away on something at his desk while Clara had a heated conversation with someone on her cell phone. The bird-woman caught him watching and turned her back hurriedly, making Kaleb crank an eyebrow in suspicion. But he was somewhat sure she wasn't up to anything shady... somewhat. Then he heard her mention the two chemicals they needed, and he calmed down.

Daivor cranked an eyebrow at his worry, but Kaleb just waved him off. "Okay, then. If we're waiting, I still need to inscribe some runes on the frames interior, right?"

"Weight Reduction runes and maybe some that protect against electricity. In case your little passenger gets too rowdy."

Kaleb expected Milly to start chittering angrily at the gnome's provocation. But his arm remained silent. In fact, he didn't feel the little marmot's presence at all at first. He followed their mental link all the way to the corner of the room beyond Roy's workstation. She was sitting atop a pile of junk, asleep. Her blue fur crackled with electricity as Kaleb watched and he nodded at Daivor's suggestion.

"That's probably a good idea. But not too many. I don't want to limit her ability to help me. She gives me a taser touch."

"Delightful." Daivor said dryly.

As they spoke, the homunculi brought over Kaleb's inscribing kit and got everything set up. Daivor moved to the front of the arm and waved for Kaleb to start at the back. They quickly discussed which Runes were appropriate before agreeing on what to go with. Once that was done, the pair set about slowly writing the runes of power on to the arm's frame.

The two worked in relative silence as the workshop hummed with activity. Drawing runes was slow and giving each finished word a portion of his magic was tiring for Kaleb. His Mana Pool was bigger than it had been when he first started inscribing. Which helped, but was still mentally exhausting. Kaleb was writing on the frame at the upper arm when he felt a shadow fall over him. He finished what he was doing and placed a hand on the Runes while he looked up.

Clara was standing over his desk, watching him and Daivor with interest. The gnome was still working on the lower part of the arm with his finger. He'd finished building the forearm and was still going even as Clara spoke.

"Runic Inscription? Interesting. I would still argue that focusing on one discipline would be a better way to go, but your Jack-Of-All Trades thing works for you."

Kaleb rolled his eyes as he sent a wave of Mana into the Runes. He felt them suck in the power and the words glowed orange for a few seconds. As the power settled, the glow vanished, and Kaleb felt his MP drop a few more notches. Taking a few seconds to rest, he nodded up at Clara, asking.

"So, how did the call go?"

Clara's feathers ruffled as she sighed dramatically. "There was some discussion about what we should extract from you for the Trucium. But I argued it would be used for experimenting. So any benefits would only be discovered if or when you achieved what you wanted."

"Technically, it would be Marie's creation."

"TekNik would see it as a contribution from your Super Group as a whole, actually. How you divvy up the benefits from there would be up to you all."

"If we shared it with you."

"If you shared it with us, yes."

Kaleb nodded knowingly as Daivor stopped writing to watch the conversation with interest. Clara noted the gnome's look and nodded.

"They have allotted a shipment to come out this way. But only with the proviso that I watch the experiments and get to take notes."

"Marie!?" Kaleb called over his shoulder, sure the young woman was listening.

"I don't like it, but that's fine." Marie called back.

Kaleb smiled up at Clara and the bird woman hurried off, her phone already in her hand. Daivor grumbled to himself, drawing a questioning look from Kaleb.

"Our interactions with her have been far too transactional. Once that type of relationship gets off the ground, you better keep providing things for one another. Because the second you don't, one party will disappear."

Kaleb flexed his fingers before gripping his inscription pen again. "You mean the second we lose our usefulness, TekNik will fuck off?"

"Essentially."

"Well, that is their prerogative. This is a business relationship. Which means I am going to stay out of it as much as possible."

"And yet you just negotiated for a restricted chemical without the duck present."

Kaleb froze as he thought about D34d-I and Farrah getting mad at him. But all he'd done was barter a future invention that didn't even exist yet. What could go wrong with that?

Seeing Kaleb's scowling face, Daivor chuckled. "I'd not sign anything until you show it to the duck."

Nodding, Kaleb went back to work on his arm. Weaving magical Runes into a cybernetic prosthesis was a lot more interesting than contract deals. Glancing over at Marie, Kaleb saw the girl deep in thought as she weighed Roy's Moldi-Metal mask in one hand and the MetFlex tubing in the other. She was clearly on the cusp of something. She just needed the right push and materials. He made a mental note to include her in all future dealings with the TekNik. At least the ones that included the invention she was currently reaching for.

He finished the last rune in the sequence he was working on and double checked his work. It looked good so he, once again, imprinted the words with his magic. He was almost to the elbow now, just a few more sequences, and they'd be done... with the frame… for now. Then it was on to the plates. He and Daivor shared a knowing smile as they leaned over their work. Once it all came together, Kaleb's new arm would be amazing.

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