Supersonic, Superhuman, Supernatural (IC)

[Electra]

"Now now," Miss A said pleasantly, walking back into the room with a few more pieces of equipment. "We only have room for so many scanners at one time, and I need Sharl assisting me." Her face was entirely bland, but it was clear she was protecting her assistant for whatever reason. "All right Cole, go ahead and lay back down on the table. This won't take too much longer, and I'll have you in the testing room for some range of motion and power exercises." She began to run a piece of equipment about a foot away from Cole's body, noting down readings as she went. "What exactly can you tell me about your powers and how they work?" she asked him while she scanned.

[Avenger Assembled]

Sharl went back to work when Miss A came back, calling out readouts from the panel he was monitoring as if he had no other concerns. He'd been about to let Cole scan him, he was sure, but from Miss A's coming back it was easy for him to guess he'd made a mistake. Stupid, he thought irritably of himself. He could have scanned your energy signature, maybe gotten a look at your programming code, then figured out where you were from! The fewer people who knew that, heroes or otherwise, the better. Other heroes worried about bad guys targeting their families with guns and bombs: all it would take would be one person stealthy enough to break into the Sanctum with an EMP device and tens of millions of people, all of his people, would be gone. It was reason enough to keep any secrets.

[Cyroa]

Cole nodded to himself as he lowered his visor at Miss A's words and entrance. The nod was both in agreement with her requests as well as an almost subconscious action on his part. It pretty much confirmed his thoughts. He didn't particularly care why they were lying about Sharl's origins (though the curious part of him REALLY wanted to know); everyone was entitled to their privacy and secrets. He just didn't like being lied to; a bit obviously too though he seriously doubted most people would recognize the flaw in Sharl's origin story. Still, something to mull over.

Returning to the task at hand, he answered her honestly. "I don't really have any powers. Well, I mean I'm pretty smart and I tend to process information significantly faster than the normal baseline average. But that's it really," he said.

[Electra]

"If you designed that suit yourself, at your age, you're being much too modest," Miss A said with a small smile, "but I'm including the functions of the suit in my questions as well. Many battlesuit wearers come to see it as such an extension of themselves, there's hardly a difference. I think you mentioned it has offensive and defensive capabilities, is it also capable of superspeed travel? What about life support and first aid?" Those were all very important things to know when one might be faced with said battlesuit-wearer coming in on a stretcher some day in the future.

[Cyroa]

He tilted his head slightly in acknowledgement. He started down the list, a well rehearsed and often covered topic. It was practically a rote list at this point. "Well, the suit is completely sealed, yes. Enhanced sensor array for multi-vision capability. The suit does enhance healing and restoration as well. There are computer interfaces as well as radio communication. It has multiple energy systems for various uses. Offensive creates, well, throwing disks for lack of a better term. The disks can be either explosive or regular impact and can also be charge with various types of energy to suit the situation. If necessary, I can divert energy from that system to strength enhancement. There is a defensive system which can increase the durability or act as a cloaking system. It isn't a perfect cloak but is still fairly encompassing. The suit can greatly enhance my speed and such. Also, as I told Sharl, the suit is capable of 'digitizing' and traveling along electrical conduits." Not quite everything, but then he wasn't quite willing to reveal everything about the suit.

[Avenger Assembled]

"I thought that part was the coolest," Sharl offered Miss A and Cole, feeling confident about talking now that he thought he wouldn't accidentally reveal something he shouldn't. "You said it's an actual physical sending, not just a destructive copying, right? That's pretty cool. The League has all those teleporters around, but if we could make something that let other people email themselves, that'd be pretty awesome." He smiled winningly, and asked, "Hey Cole, are you allowed to get patents on what you research? I know it's strange because you don't have a background people know yet, and because you're a kid."

[Electra]

"I'm sure the school will help him obtain whatever patents he needs to get," Miss A told Sharl placidly. "And if there are any problems, you can always bring something here, Cole, and we'll help you work through the process. The Lab applies for a great many patents on behalf of the various creators, we have a very streamlined process for it."

She finished the scan and held out a hand to Cole to help him sit up again. "Excellent, that's a perfect set of scans for the file. Why don't we go ahead to the testing room and I'll record any power demonstrations you care to give. I always hope we'll never need to use any of what we collect here, but if your suit does become damaged, these scans will help in the recalibration process." She gestured towards a door in the back of the room, one that led into a private hallway.

[Cyroa]

He shrugged one shoulder at Sharl. "Not sure what the legal stuff is for a minor in this country. But if she says they've done it a bunch, there's probably loop-holes and stuff for teenagers. Teenagers with fake identities might be a different story though," he said with a wry smile. "Though if I had to pick something to develop for mass production, while the digitizing is cool, I'd probably go with energy production. Free, limitless power without waste or pollution seems far more advantageous," he said with a shrug. He was really, really glad the suit hid his face and stuff as she moved over to help him stand. All that HOTNESS SO CLOSE, Stop that! Focus! I'm here 'cause there making me do more testing not for her to throw herself on me! ......right?

Standing up, he nodded and open the door to head down the hallway. "Logical enough," he said with a small shrug.

[Avenger Assembled]

Sharl headed for the testing control room, flipping through various scenarios while he waited for Miss A to finish talking to Cole. I bet he's going to get a crush on her. A lot of the male scientists who came into the Lab seemed to do that, especially the younger ones. Sharl himself thought Miss A was very beautiful, very very beautiful, in fact, but she was more like his big sister than anything else. Well, Gina's more like my big sister, he amended. Maybe the whole world, or almost the whole world, had no idea who Gina was, but he knew she was the real hero here. She really was more like having another big sister, but this one with access to so many wonderful things. Ooh, I bet he'll like the flying buzzbots...

[Electra]

Miss A led the way into a large empty room, longer than wide, with one long wall covered in reflective impervium-fused glass and the far wall dotted with various targets. The other long wall was colored in black and white stripes, while the floor contained distance markings and a thick red line marking off the near quarter of the room. In the center of the room was a set of reinforced gymnastics equipment. "This room is highly reinforced," she explained to Cole, "designed to stand up against metahuman powers. If you invested a lot of time and effort, you might damage it, but nothing we're going to do in testing should pose any problem." She gave him a reassuring smile.

"Sharl and I are going to go back to the observation booth," she gestured to the glass wall," and let you do your testing in here. You'll start behind the red line, and I will tell you what I'd like to see. If anything ever starts making you feel uncomfortable or unsafe, I want you to tell me right away. All right?" Beckoning to Sharl, she headed for the booth with all the computers and meters.

[Cyroa]

Cole looked around the rectangular room curiously. "I understand," he said with a nod to Ms. A and Sharl before they left the room. He noted the equipment curiously, hoping he didn't need to perform any gymnastics; that was not something he'd ever studied. He wandered over to the red line, taking a moment to roughly measure and get a feel for the dimensions of the place. When he was ready, and when he thought they had enough time to get back to the observation room, he stepped behind the red line to wait patiently.

[Avenger Assembled]

"I didn't mean to say so much," said Sharl, a little worriedly once he was sure Torque couldn't hear them. He was well-trained enough to keep helping Miss A with the equipment, but that didn't mean he wasn't concerned about the potential consequences of spilling the beans: especially to someone was going to be a future classmate. For all the space people in this world had available, they sure did cram their teenagers together. "Do you think it'll be all right? He seems nice enough, and he's got his own problems to worry about..."

[Electra]

"There's nothing wrong with telling people 'I don't want to talk about where I come from,'" Miss A told Sharl, not unkindly. "Twisting things up so you say things that are true but not the way the listener might suppose is only going to get you in trouble. The other students in the school are going to be smart kids too. If they have good manners they'll respect your privacy, but not when you make it sound like you're telling riddles." She gave him a quick smile of reassurance. "I'll keep an eye on Cole, just to be on the safe side."

She sat down in the chair in front of the bank of monitors and made herself comfortable. "Watch the bioscanner readings," she told Sharl, "make sure they stay within acceptable parameters. With a deep breath, she closed her eyes, letting the Miss A body go limp. A moment later, her dulcet voice came over the speakers in the testing room. "All right, Torque, go ahead and focus on the target on the far wall. Hit it with your best shot, whenever you're ready."

[Cyroa]

Cole nodded as Ms. A's melodious tone came over the speaker. He turned to look at the 'target', little more than a circle on the far wall. It seemed easy enough. He took a final moment to glance over the reading in his displays to make sure everything was optimal and that he wasn't missing anything. He keyed up the combat mode and took a breath to relax. He'd had to do this several times for the government folks; no big deal. He half opened his hand and energy flowed down from the suit. A faintly glowing throwing ring was quickly formed. Cole didn't bother charging it with any energy; simple impact was enough here. With a flick of his wrist, he sent it flashing down the room to hit the target dead center where the disk exploded in a small burst as it broke down, task complete.

"Was that ok?"

[Electra]

"That was acceptable," Miss A told him, sounding a tiny bit skeptical. "But from what I've seen and read about your suit configurations, I rather doubt that was your best shot." Another target appeared on the far wall, this one bigger. "The point is not to destroy the target, but to calibrate our equipment for your powers. Go ahead and overkill the target, and don't worry about damaging the wall. Whenever you're ready."

[Cyroa]

Cole frowned in his suit for a brief moment. He couldn't really hit it harder though he supposed he could charge discs; maybe that's what she wanted. Selecting a couple different options, he started throwing disks at the wall, one after another. Each was charge differently, from UV light to to electricity to destructive radiation to heat to just pure energy. Each disk flew just as true as the ones before it, crashing into the target center and releasing the burst of energy contained within. After throwing the last he stepped back and looked up at the window, head tilted a little quizzically.

[Electra]

"Good, thank you," Miss A's disembodied voice told him. Now I'd like you to demonstrate your range of motion. I'd like you to show me any movement powers you possess, then your flexibility and athletic ability. Don't worry if something isn't outside the normal human range, I'm just taking readings for the record at the moment. If you need more space for anything, just let me know, we'll save it for the end and take it outside." Cameras along the wall shifted their positions to focus on him, and small running lights in the floor lit to illuminate a marked track along the outside of the large room.

[Cyroa]

He nodded, bringing up the tertiary systems. "I'm not that athletic," he said, almost apologetically, "and definitely not a gymnast. But I do have some systems for movement." He turned and started running around the track. It wasn't hard since the suit was doing the real work. On the longer stretches, he'd throw in a leap to see how far he'd go. Landing on the walls or ceiling didn't seem to affect his movement or trajectory either. It was just another surface to him. Finally he moved over to the gymnastics equipment. Using the metal as a conduit, he digitized himself and solidified at the other end of the material.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Wow," said Sharl, glancing at Miss Americana at the display of the power of Torque's suit. "That's pretty awesome. I've seen people flying around really fast in those suits, but never with that kind of acrobatic stuff." With her permission, since this was part of his education too, he leaned close to the microphone and said, "Okay, Torque, you see that floating target on the wall?" Sure enough, floating in the air over the armored hero's head now was a big red circle. "Get in position to exert yourself against it. We want to see how much kinetic power your suit can put out. Don't worry, it's got big magnetic buffers, you won't crash through."

[Cyroa]

He looked up at the big circle over his head. "Ok then." He keyed the primary systems to the enhancement mode. He frowned at the circle a moment and took a breath. Raising his hands, he took a basic stance to get ready to handle some weight. "Alright, I'm ready. Here we go..." With a final nod, he started pushing and exerting as much force as he could bring to bear, pushing the systems to his rated limits. It wasn't complicated, just simple application of force after all.

[Electra]

The plate moved easily at first, then posed more and more resistance until he couldn't budge it another centimeter. "Thank you, that's excellent," Miss A told him. "Go ahead and take a little break, get some water from the cooler in the southeast wall." Up in the control booth, Miss A's somnolent body didn't so much as twitch, but Sharl could hear her voice just the same. "We're almost done here. Would you go and get me a Lab promo packet from my office?" Lights blinked on and off on various consoles as the disembodied consciousness made adjustments and took readings.

"All right, just a bit more now, Cole," Miss A told the boy in the testing room. "I'm going to shut down all the light and enable the soundproofing. I'd like to see how you navigate around various obstacles in the dark. Go as slow or fast as makes you comfortable." The testing room was suddenly plunged into completely silent darkness.

[Avenger Assembled]

At Miss Americana's word, Sharl immediately headed out of the control room and to her office where the promo packet awaited. It was a standard tactic to hand this over to people like Torque when they came in for a consultation, but he found himself thinking all the same. He'd never asked about the Lab rules about who worked there, and wondered if his fellow future Claremont student was a likely recruit. After all, Dragonfly wasn't that much older than Torque and she worked alongside Miss Americana all the time. Miss A will keep my secrets safe even if he does work here, he thought trustingly as he walked back into the lab with the packet under his arm. She's the smartest person in the world, and she can handle anybody.

[Cyroa]

Cole nodded but didn't move to get anything to drink. He hadn't worked up that much of a sweat; it hadn't been too strenuous at all. "I'm ok, thanks." He gave a little shrug at her next instructions. Even as the lights went down, his systems compensated automatically. Functionally there was no difference for him. He didn't waste any time before turning and doing almost the same movements he had done a few moments ago; running and jumping around the equipment. He finished by hoping down off the wall to stop and stand where he had started to wait patiently for his next set of instructions.

[Electra]

"Good," Miss A said approvingly, bringing the lights up once more. "Those are some excellent visual scanners you have. Now I believe I've tested most of what is listed in your dossier as far as your suit's powers. Is there anything else you would like to demonstrate, or tell me about the suit? As I mentioned, anything and everything is valuable when it comes to compiling your medical and repair file, so feel free to expound."

[Cyroa]

He thought a moment. He wasn't going to mention the computer or library files he had in his suit, but there were a couple other things he could mention. "Well, like most suits I'm certain, it protects me from various environmental hazards and contains life support systems. The disks I throw can also be made to explode, with a little less force though I can also charge it with various energies as needed. As I mentioned before, it enhances my own physiology to some degree providing some healing benefits. It is also extremely resistant and protects me extremely well. What else? Oh, one of the systems can enhance those protections to make me practically immune to small arms. Or I can realign that matrix into a stealth suit instead." He paused. "Yeah, that's about it," he said.