Ch. 51 - Leah’s Long Legs"If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!" *BOOM*

  – Road Rash, kicking the snot out of a model Fourteen with his new foot, ndmine integrated

  ***

  Each off-white pstic box contained a limb, along with two different bottles of liquid. One a spray, and the other with some kind of…pipette?

  The purpose of that became clear when she unzipped the Sleeve and shucked it off of one shoulder. She used the straw thingy of the bottle to squeeze a little of its fluid between her skin and the rim of that pin metal cap stuck to the end of her stump, until it slid free with a plop and fell to the floor.

  The stump itself was unmarred. My bionites had sealed the amputation wounds, removed any scars. It looked almost like she was just born that way. Leah herself studied the stump, too, checking it for…irregurities, I guessed. She was a bit pale in the face, and I realized she hadn't really come face to face with her stumps before.

  "They look well healed, don't they?" I noted.

  Leah blew a heavy breath of air. "Yeah they do, and Ypsi tells me that's good. Simplifies the seating of these Earth-style prosthetics. The proper Warforge ones I'll get at some point will be integrated on a far more direct level. Speaking of seating, time for the impnt."

  She sat forward, bracing her remaining arm across her knees and id her forehead against it. A position I was familiar with from my own instaltion of the dream learning impnt.

  I twitched and grimaced in sympathy when she did, as I recalled that instant of blinding pain splitting my head. She groaned, and only barely stopped herself from trying to rub her eyeballs with the heel of her exoskeleton hand, and groaned even harder.

  I giggled a little, and offered, "Here, I'll lend you mine." Leaning towards her, I stretched out both arms, heels first, and Leah accepted with a tickled chuckle, pressing her closed eyes against the balls of my hands.

  I let her control the pressure as I gently kneaded her eyeballs with tiny motions of my wrists, until she leaned away again with a relieved sigh and a smile.

  "That was horrible, but hopefully worth it. Ypsi says the impnt will allow me to control any prosthetics like they were part of my body, even if they're not wired in—or even attached to me at all."

  I smiled, already imagining orphan hands crawling across the floor. It'd be great for Halloween. The kids would love it. Or hate it, which was okay, too. "Any prosthetics? Could you designate random machinery as prosthetics? Vehicles?"

  Leah tilted her head, and Ypsi answered for her.

  "It has to be designed as a prosthetic! There's technical stuff those have that other machines don't. But there are adapters. Usually for vehicles! Then she can use the impnt to remote-control them!"

  "Huh, that sounds pretty useful. Future purchase?" I asked Leah.

  "Maybe. Most of the advanced combat vehicles come with piloting pods that connect to your nervous system, but they need a different impnt to handle." She pointed at her own head, before continuing, "This one's meant for personal prosthetics, body additions, that kind of thing."

  She picked up the artificial left arm, the Sleeve contracting itself around her torso when the weight of the limb almost pulled her other shoulder free. It was a matte bck, with those Warforge golden lines swung around it, leading into filigree on the back of the hand. It didn't have the characteristic white vapor, and the white highlights were just well-pced strips of lighting.

  Basically, it followed the same rules of design, but it was a knockoff. Oh well, cheap's cheap, and they're supposed to be very temporary.

  There was a cup at the top of the arm, obviously shaped to conform to her stump, and Leah sprayed it down with the second bottle, before she fitted it onto herself. It suctioned right on with a hiss of air.

  Leah tested her new hand, opening and closing her fingers, rubbing them across the hexagon grid of the Sleeve. A delighted grin spread over her face, and she looked at me. "Well, this is better than I expected, honestly! It feels absolutely real. If I didn't see the metal, I'd think I had a natural arm."

  "Oh, awesome! How strong is it?"

  "Uh, roughly equivalent to the strongest climber in grip strength. The real limit isn't actually the arm, but my shoulder, spine, and muscuture, and how well the socket adheres to my stump. Since it's all fabricated by Ypsi, it'll be as strong as my original arm in most situations, stronger in some. I can climb with it, or hoist myself up."

  "Huh. Cool"

  Leah grinned, and with a sparkle in her eye, gave me her first prosthetic-delivered thumbs-up.

  I was still chuckling when she got busy repcing her other limbs, and I helped her with the legs. These were quite a bit heavier than the arms and having me assist made things easier.

  The legs were beautifully shaped; artificial muscles traced with golden lines, and the matte bck and gold showed interesting contrasts to create stylized shadows and the attractive contours of a professional model. The toenails were illuminated in white, with a tiny amount of iridescence to them, much like nail polish. Still none of the vapor, but the soft white light managed to look like a homage to the Warforge look, rather than a cheap copy.

  "Why do these look so much better than the arms?"

  "I got more expensive models for the legs. I figured that since they'll bear my weight, along with any gear I'm wearing, and they're more often in reach of Antithesis jaws, it'd be better if they were more durable. Had to compromise with the arms, but I'm gonna switch those out soon, anyway."

  "Oh, smart! How do they feel?"

  She smoothed her hands over the artificial muscles, and they weren't stiff. Rather, it looked quite like the pliability of organic flesh minus the subdermal adipose yer. And more, the muscle fibers underneath the fused topmost fiments that acted as both muscle and skin, could move and slide, which Leah completely fixated on.

  "This is like a deep muscle massage, Tinea! I could get used to this!"

  I had to giggle at Leah's utter enthrallment, and she retaliated by pointing a finger at me…which squirted water into my face.

  While I was still sputtering in surprise, 'cause, who the fuck installs a squirt gun in their prosthetic?!, Leah was already ughing her ass off and yelling, "Revenge is mine!"

  Oh, yeah? Well, if that is so, precedent was set by you, dearest gremlin! After her own example, I jumped her, and tickled the crap out of her, until she was red with breathlessness and begged me to relent. I decided to stop before things got…heated and sat back, looking at Leah with a wry smile. "Truce?"

  "Truce."

  Uh-oh. I was getting to know her well enough to read that suppressed shiftiness. This cease-fire wasn't going to st very long, was it? Leah caught my eyes, realized I'd realized, and hurried to speak while trying to hide a grin, before I could say anything.

  Arms outstretched, she asked, "Help me up? I want to see what it's like to walk on these."

  She still had the Sleeve on and it looked a little awkward, with the arms and legs just flopping around, hanging off of her torso. At this point it was more like she was protecting her modesty with a weird tube with dangly bits, rather than wearing any kind of clothing or support.

  I got up, and once more positioned my feet against hers, grabbed her hands, and carefully pulled her to her feet.

  She stood stably and perfectly fine, though she showed an intense focus as she looked down at her feet, lifting one after the other, taking experimental steps to the side, before she let go of my shoulders, and began walking in tiny little circles around me at the center of the cocoon.

  I kept still and quiet, just watching as she learned her new very…long…legs. Crap, she was hot.

  Maaaybe not wanting to break her concentration wasn't quite the reason for my silence, but, uh, secrets are fun! Yes!

  Eventually she hopped lightly, grinned at me, and said, "These are awesome! The mechanics of walking are a bit different. They're like actual legs, but not a copy of my old ones. I think the proportions are a bit different? Oh! Right, it's like I'm wearing high heels! Except I'll never twist my ankles."

  Yes, dear. And you move like you're a model on the catwalk, was what I thought. "Well? How do you feel?" is what I actually asked.

  "Great! Honestly, these are making me feel like I'm dancing. Constantly on my tippy toes, just without the effort or strain that would've taken."

  "Huh." I tried to imagine that and found my vanity rather enjoyed the idea. "I can see how that'd be awesome. Maybe I'll try that too, with my Battle Skin? I had this idea of growing armor around my feet like some of those cute cospy ptform shoes, but segmented? Cover them with fuzz, and it'd be all sorts of cute. Add a little heel, and it'd be…more than cute."

  Leah tilted her head, as she studied my feet. I flexed my toes impishly, making her grin again.

  "You know what, I think you could absolutely rock that kind of aesthetic. Is the fuzz going to be the same as the one on your tail?"

  "Yes. At least it'll look and feel very simir. I'm going to have to figure out how to make it hydrophobic, though. Ah, Tynea. Can you help with stuff like that?" I asked the friendly…sort-of-maybe-big-sister AI. Friendly neighborhood big sister? Her tone was gentle enough for that, but a touch too formal. Secretary? Nah, not that formal. Uh… Maybe I'd come up with a proper term some other day.

  Certainly, Tynea replied, though the Battle Skin comes with a limited variety of setae you may grow. You could do much more with the right addon catalog.

  "Like what?"

  If you want to grow armor beyond simple scales, then that would be a new function that would require your setae to fuse with each other. That's a minor genetic change, and fairly cheap.

  "Oh, but that does sound useful! Let's look into that when we've got extra points again."

  As you wish.

  I turned back to Leah and asked, "So. Squirt gun. What's that about?"

  She smirked at me. "Well, I figured since we needed a shower… The other hand does soap, by the way."

  "!"

  "Yep," she said, more satisfaction adding itself to the smirk.

  "How do you handle the water, though? No way do you fit more than a liter in that arm."

  She popped a panel above her elbow, at the back of her arm, and showed me a round plug that was stuck head-first into some kind of tubing. Neither those tubes, nor the plug itself, fit with the design. They looked like after-market alterations.

  "I'm cheating a little. See this thing? It's actually a specialized kind of grenade from my Warforge catalog. Usually these things spray liters of nasty chemicals in a massive fog, but I've got this one loaded with normal water. It's very basic dimensional shunt tech, a little more stable than your void grenades. Since I had Ypsi customize the arm a little, it counts as a magazine, or tank, and that means I got this first one for free. There's fifty liters of water connected to it, but I could get much bigger compression rates if I paid a few more points."

  "Oh, that's cool! Same with the soap?"

  "Yeah. Not sure how I'll use up fifty liters of soap, but yes."

  I grabbed Leah's hand, and started dragging her out of the cocoon, towards the stairs.

  "Shower time!"

  ***

  Eleeyah