Turn 21

--- Maya ---

“Okay, so what’s wrong with the car?” She asked, watching her father -who was not known for his mechanical prowess- working under the hood of the family car.

“I don’t actually know.” Her dad admitted. “The car isn’t starting, but there’s this sort of clicking sound whenever I try to get it running. So, I’m hoping I can figure it out with a few searches on my phone.”

She eyed the car for a moment, part of her remembering how she fixed Tommy’s amp the week before. (I mean it wouldn’t hurt to look.)

“If you want I can take a look at it.” She offered, tying her hair back into a pony tail to keep it out of her way.

Her dad gave her a look. “And how do you know more about cars than me?”

“I was looking into some engineering stuff for a project, so I got a basic idea about a couple of things.” She admitted, not telling him the actual details of said project involving creating a horde of mechanical minions to fight on her behalf. (Just need to make a prototype minion to kick it off…)

“Well, you’re a smart kid. So, I guess as long as you don’t actually break anything, it won’t do any more harm.” Her father agreed, giving her a chance.

“Just wait and see. I fixed Tommy’s amp just last week.” She told him, taking a look under the hood.

“I’m pretty sure a guitar amp and a car engine are about as far as you can get from each other.” Her father told her with a wry grin.

“Maybe…” She nodded, trying to get something out of her whispers as she stared into the car that she understood nothing about. “Hey, do you think you can turn the car off and on? I’m thinking it’ll help me see what’s wrong.”

“Sure, thing sweetheart.” Her father agreed moving into the driver’s seat.

Remembering, the difficulty she’d had getting the whispers to help her with her brother’s amp, she leaned in a bit closer than was probably safe waiting for her father to try and start the car.

As he did so she heard a faint rumbling and several clicking sounds, that only the faintest of whispers were willing to give her anything about. And while it wasn’t enough to let her repurpose one car part for another, it did give her a couple of ideas on what the problem could be.

“Hold on, turn it off for a second!” She called.

Waiting for the car to turn off, she checked the car fluids, and while it came out darker than she thought it was supposed to be, several of the whispers died off confirming that this wasn’t the actual problem. So, listening to the few that remained, she checked a few other things around the car, before finding a wire that was connected to the battery had come loose.

“Okay, I think I found the problem!”

“What is it?” Her dad asked a little surprised.

“Just give me a second.” She told him, moving to her dad’s -largely unused- tool box.

“Uh, what are you doing?” He asked watching her.

“Fixing your problem.” She admitted, picking up a small wrench she hadn’t bothered stealing for her own projects, before returning to the car to tighten the wire’s bolt.

“Uh, sweetie, I appreciate the effort but are you sure you-”

“And done! Turn the car on!” She told him flipping the hood shut.

Giving her a concerned look, her dad decided to give her a chance and tried turning the car on again. And unlike the times prior when it had merely responded with a clicking, this time the car roared to life.

“Ha! It’s working good as new!” Her father laughed, stepping out of the car.

“Yeah, it was just a few wires on the circuit board that came loose.” She explained wiping her hands off on her jeans. “Also, I think the oil is due for a change, and you might want to get the radiator looked at, because the car fluid was looking a little dark.” She listed, trying to remember everything the whispers had told her.

Her dad blinked. “Huh… you really do know more about cars than I do.”

She smiled. “I’m the smart kid, remember?”

Her father gave her a snort of amusement, before pulling out his wallet. “Well, since you fixed the car, I think you deserve a little something.”

“Uh, dad, you don’t have to do that.” She told him shaking her head. “Everyone needs the car, so there’s no reason I wouldn’t fix it.”

“Still you saved me a couple of hundred by fixing this, so paying you a little bit isn’t going to hurt.” Her father insisted.

“Yeah, but you’re still going to have to take it to the shop to fix that other stuff.” She reminded him.

“Maybe, but I can almost guarantee they would’ve charge me five times as much to do whatever you just did.” Her father told her handing a twenty. “So, take this as a thanks for saving me the difference.”

“Mm, I guess…” She reluctantly conceded.

“That’s my girl.” Her father smiled as he ruffled her hair. “Now why don’t we take this for a drive and grab everyone lunch? Since you fixed the car you can pick were we pick up from.”

She couldn’t help but sigh as she made her way towards the passenger side. “Sure, why not?”

---

Seeing how she was once more making a trip to the hospital for another one of her projects, she decided that there would be no harm in swiping any electronics or mechanical bits her various neighbors had left out on the curb.

(Or rather kicking them open and swiping the best bits when no one is looking.)

“Don’t judge me, I’m going to be a hero one day!”

(And right now, you’re stealing other people’s trash.)

“I said don’t judge me!”

---

Setting down her haul, she rolled her shoulders, and while the majority of injuries had healed that didn’t change the fact that she was still filled with a number of aches and pains from when Decker’s summons had tossed her around.

“We really should do something about that…” She admitted.

(Yes, well those experimental herbs won’t be ready for another two days.) Her inner logic reminded her.

“No, I mean we need defenses, something to protect ourselves in a fight. Anything would be better than the hoodie we’re wearing.” She explained picking up a few bits of plastic and metal and taking them to her lab table.

(And what are you thinking?)

“Just a basic bit of armor we can wear under our jacket.” She figured, warming up her tools and Alchemy () program. “It won’t do much for our defenses, but like I said something is better than nothing.”

(Ooh, and this is the first step towards our costume!) Her inner child agreed excitedly.

(Hm, wouldn’t our headset count as our first step?)

(No, that was the first step towards our mask.) Her inner passion disagreed. (Besides, it just covers our eyes right now. If our family ever ran into us in costume they’d know it was us right away!)

“That’s a good a point.” She admitted, shaping the metal and plastic into a set of bracers for her forearms. “We’ll have to fix that before we start patrolling. I mean we probably won’t run into the fam, but it’s better safe than sorry.”

(I suppose that’s reasonable.)

(Yeah, and we can trick it out with all sorts of features like a re-breather, a voice changer, and all sorts of stuff!)

“Those are good ideas, but it might take us a minute to set any of that up…” She told her more excitable self, as she began shaping some of the metal and plastic to fit her chest. All the while wondering how the whispers got her sizes.

(Eh, they’re in here too.) The voice in her head metaphorically shrugged.

“Still it sounds like they’ve got me down to the millimeter which even I didn’t know.” She pointed out, “And I didn’t even know what my forearm measured out too!” She added snapping the perfectly snug bracer onto her arm to underline said point.

(I don’t know. How do they know the math necessary to generate raw heat and electricity?)

(She has you there.) Her inner logic agreed.

“I don’t think it says anything good that the voices in my head can out argue me.” She told them plainly.

(Nonsense.) Her inner reason argued. (It merely proves that your mind is filled with nothing but intelligent thoughts.)

(And smut, let’s not forget the smut.)

(Yes, but smut is the smart woman’s porn.)

---

Once home, she once more felt the siren’s call of her bed.

(You know we are injured still…) Her inner reason pointed out. (It wouldn’t hurt to take a couple of more days off.)

“Maybe…” She admitted, unable to keep her eyes off her bed.

(Just go to sleep already.)

“But I don’t wanna!” She whined.

(Yes, you do, you’re struggling to keep your eyes open.)

She pawed at her eyes. “But there’s still stuff we can do today…”

(We’re already back at the house, and everyone else is getting ready for bed. So, not really.)

“Mm, fine…” She groaned, making her way to her bed.