‘Beware the ides of March’ …I should have listened.

After Christmas, I was spending as much time as I could in my lab, trying to create the energy-storage crystals. It took me a few tries to create the necessary conditions for them to coalesce but I managed, just like I hoped. Testing their failure-modes with small amounts of energy showed that yes, depending on the way the internal structure was compromised, either by outside force or by uncontrolled energy transfer, the failure-mode changed from simply going boom to melting into hellishly hot toxic sludge. I could observe both failure-modes but I had yet to determine what caused the difference. But unless I did something stupid, the crystals were safe and usable, giving me the energy-storage that I needed.

What surprised me was the ability of the crystal-matrix to store both, electrons and positrons, allowing me to store a ton of energy and even increase the efficiency of my armour by using both polarisations in my designs. I had to redesign and rebuild the various parts I wanted to put in but I felt it was worth it. With the improved energy-conduits, my armour would be stronger than planned and last longer.

Sadly, all other schematics and ideas had to take a backseat, the first order of business was the completion of the base-armour with the improved parts, allowing me to start building my reputation.

Towards the end of February, the armour had taken shape and it was a thing of beauty.

The metal-ceramic compound I had used for the outer scales was absorbing light easily, giving it an impossibly black colour. It wasn’t just black, it looked like a 2D-image, transported into 3D-reality. If you looked closely, you could see small, jagged edges all around the shadow, giving the whole thing an incredibly menacing appearance.

Below the outer, scaly layer, designed to take impacts and spread them out while only compromising a small area if anything managed to overcome the material’s durability, was a metal hull, representing the main part of the armour. All servos, all connections, all sensors were installed as part of that metal hull, linked into the on-board computer to allow me control.

On the inside of the metal hull was a gel-layer, acting both as a sensor, allowing the armour to move in conjunction with my flesh and blood-body but also acting as a cushion against impact and a data-carrier transmitting tactile information from the outer layer to the pilot inside.

Last, and probably least, would be an incredibly thin skin-suit, partially because I did not want to go into the armour buck-naked, partially to absorb away sweat, keeping the gel-layer clean as it would be a pain to remove and clean. It was a full-body stocking, clinging tightly to my every curve.

I had designed the armour to be relatively easy to don and doff, using the codpiece to anchor the rest. The rest of the pieces fused with strong magnetic seams to that first anchor-piece, allowing me to don the armour within minutes without any help, even with all the complexity. Doffing it was even easier, at least if I just wanted to drop it.

The boots were sadly lacking in ingenuity, I had yet to come up with some kind of idea to let me move faster than a running speed. Well, assisted running, the armour allowed me to run at roughly 45 km/h and keep that speed for a while. It wasn’t as fast as a car but it was hell of a lot faster than going by foot.

But what the boots were lacking in ingenuity, the helm made up for. At first glance, it looked like a motorcycle-helm, at least if you ignored the light-absorbing blackness. But it sealed to the armour like all the other pieces, giving me an airtight suit, just in case. In my normal mode I’d simply draw in air from outside but I had the option to switch to an small, internal reservoir of oxygen, if I ever needed to stop breathing, I could last for five minutes without trouble.

The best part however was the visor. The base-ceramic of my compound was incredibly hard but lacked a few properties I wanted for the scales, letting them bend rather than break. For the visor, I wanted the hardest material of all as there was no anchoring part directly below it. So the visor was actually the hardest part of the armour, transfering all kinetic energy it took into the helm and the armour. Breaking through the visor would be a challenge for most attackers, giving the apparent weakness the strongest protection. It also housed a thin film of visually active material, allowing Galatea to project any information into my field of view and projecting whatever we wanted to the outside without compromising my sight. If I ever lost all power, the visor turned clear, allowing me to see my surroundings.

In addition, I had installed a plethora of sensors in the helmet, giving me every sense I could think off, from low-light vision to ultrasound scanning, from x-rays to magnetic resonance-scanning, I could gain a ton of information. There was just one standing order to Galatea, never try to match any Powered’s scanned data to data obtained from other sources. I did not even want to know the true identity of anyone I came across in costume, it would eliminate the temptation to influence their true identity. There were too many horror-stories online about those who had made things personal. Every Powered, from both sides of the law, came crashing down on them and exacted vengeance.

The first time, I donned the armour, I felt amazing. It was responsive, smooth and empowering. Of course, I swiftly realized that I had a lot to learn, no matter how well I had worked, creating something this complex without bugs was unrealistic so before I ever stepped foot outside, I trained my movement within the bunker. It wasn’t quite like moving without the armour but I was amazed at how well it worked. I was moving as if I was wearing some warm, slightly constricting clothing, not almost one-and-a-half times my own body-weight. That was the flaw of the armour. It was so damn heavy. I was able to slowly shuffle without any motor-assistance but more than that? Not possible.

But it limited my movements, no doubt about it. Even with all the engineering in the armour, it was limited in motion-range and dexterity. The increased strength and durability would have to make up for those drawbacks.

Inspecting myself in the mirror proved that the armour was not only beauty married to design, it was also quite menacing. My normal slender and rather small figure was beefed up by quite a bit, letting me cut an imposing figure, compared to my normal appearance.

Two weeks after I had donned the armour for the first time, the trials within the bunker came to an end. I needed to get outside, to try the armour in a real-world scenario. Testing inside the bunker had given me a good idea of the performance envelope but there was only so much I could do in the limited space.

My goal was a simple test-run through the forest, into the abandoned industrial park close to the river and back. More or less parkour in armour, gathering performance and efficiency-data hopefully without attracting attention.

Leaving the bunker for the first time armoured up was an intense experience. In the dark forest, the enhanced sensors proved invaluable, letting me see in almost perfect clarity, even giving me a shadowed view of things hidden from view and only detectable by my other sensors. There would be almost no way to hide from me and Galatea who kept an eye on the collected data. Moving down the hill was more of a challenge than expected, the weight of the armour made it hard to find solid purchase in the slightly muddy ground, forcing me into a mix of sliding and running. But the enhanced balance aspect came through, allowing Galatea to help me keep upright and my feet under me. I even managed to dodge all the evil trees that jumped into my way, not running a single one of them over.

After a speedy descent through the muddy forest, I got to the abandoned industrial park. I mainly wanted to see how well I was able to navigate narrow alleys and maybe even a few corridors. My first challenge was a maze of old warehouses and storages, I was able to keep a lot of momentum going by pushing off walls with my arms, sometimes even my legs, but I had to be careful that I never pushed harder than a wall could take. For that, I needed to use the sensors and make split-second decisions, depending on their readings.

I was hurtling through the narrow alleys, following navigational commands given by Galatea mere moments before I had to turn, trying to give the impression of a high-speed chase, when Galatea called out a warning. I managed to half-turn when something struck me and smashed me into a warehouse. Not in the wall. The wall simply gave way when about two hundred kilo of armoured Alexandria crashed into the wall, punted by some jackass. Luckily, the armour could take a beating and keep going.

I stood, dusted myself off and checked out who had just greeted me in such a friendly manner.

Seeing my attacker, I cursed the high heavens, my attacker was wearing the red-blue gear of the Hero’s League and there was a smirk on the slightly visible part of his face.

“Now, will you come quietly or do I have to peel you out of your tincan before taking you to the league to register?”