Design Requirements

Participants:

cardinal_icon.gif elisabeth2_icon.gif warren_icon.gif

Scene Title Design Requirements
Synopsis The suit is… almost right!
Date March 28, 2011

Warren's Factory


TESTING! That's what's on Warren's plate today. They've gone up an elevator, then down an entirely different elevator in his factory of about four of them, and where they arrived at was his super private workspace. Walls, floors, and ceiling are white in this smaller than usual area, about the size of a spacious living room. There are tools sitting on the white workbenches, which would be practically invisible and blended into the walls if it weren't for the little projects sitting on them. There's also a little table with the outline of a four foot body covered with a white cloth, which is pushed to the back of the room with most of his other larger projects.

He needs the space. Right now he's wearing the Arkham suit in all of its glory, no suit or anything, just skin tight black material with little silvery nodes lining it. He's wearing a simple motorcycle helmet right now, and when he speaks it's from a filter, similar to the helmet he used during his crazy days.

Turning around the face them, he runs fingers over a dark katana that seems to have gotten some sort of tech makeover itself, at least in the hilt. "These helmets are prototypes, they'll be much smaller and more steamlined in the final design, but the body army is basically complete. The helmets have gas filters, night and heat vision, and a panorama view inside. This sword is my personal baby." He suddenly swings it out to his side, leaving a heavy arc of electricity in its wake. "Elisabeth's armor is finished." He nods his head back to her armor laying on one of the workbenches with a helmet.

Elisabeth seems unfazed by the walk through the factory. She's made it a few times now. But she's eyeing the armor with its attendant helmet warily. "So it's very similar to the Horizon helmets?" she asks, moving to pick up the piece in question. She peers inside it, her brows pulling together. When she slips it on, however, the thing comes immediately back off her head before she even pulls it all the way down. "You'll need to change it," she tells Warren immediately. "I won't wear that." Her tone is adamant, and not a bit apologetic.

"It certainly looks impressive," Cardinal observes - he's in full business regalia today, all pinstriped suit and fedora as befits an official-esque visit to his business partner, "Can it take a bullet, is the question… and what else can it do?" The suit's looked over slowly, and then he catches Elisabeth's reaction, twisting to look to her with a furrowed brow, "What's wrong?"

"I soundproofed her helmet to reduce the danger of someone causing a feedback loop with her ability." Warren explains, sliding the sword into his belt so he can begin demonstrating. "Pepper spray." He presses one button on the top of the wrist to sit a tiny poof of spray up, just enough to show it. "Gas containers in the sides, they're currently empty." He points to both the left and right side of the wrist. "And tazer." This time he presses the bottom node on the wrist, sending a thin wire out about twenty feet, which lands on the floor. He presses it again to retract the wire back into his wrist.

"But can it take a bullet!" Warren presses a random white space on the wall, apparently a button, and nineteen inch television is revealed. "We're currently being recorded on high speed VHS. I'll need your help for this." He grabs a double barrelled shotgun from a bench, then tosses it to Cardinal. "Shoot me in the stomach." Arms are spread out to his sides, just waiting.

The blonde in her black-on-black daily uniform gear looks at the shadowmorph and the techno-geek from Hell. "I can't function if I can't friggin' well hear. It's the same reason I wouldn't wear the old helmets," she tells Cardinal quietly. Her tone becomes aggrieved. "I've been told it's all in my head, but you know…. all in my head or not, I have to be able to feel the sound waves, to sense what's going on around me. It's why the basement drives me batshit." She's not entirely sure she's ever articulated it, the anxiety that the sensation causes her. And she doesn't like saying it in front of Warren, but he needs to understand to correct the problem. "It's … like being muffled. Or negated. Sound is… a constant in the world, even sounds you don't hear. Being inside a soundproofed room or … wearing a soundproof helmet? It's like losing the entirety of your peripheral vision while you're driving." She puts the helmet down to watch the demonstration.

"Ah. Yeah, I can see that…" An understanding nod to Elisabeth, before Cardinal turns back just in time for the shotgun to be tossed to him. He catches it easily, one brow crooking up to the edge of his fedora. The double-barrel is pumped once, and he notes, "Shotguns have shit for penetration, you know, but it could still break a rib even if it doesn't penetrate. You sure you want it?"

"It's the only way to fully demonstrate exactly how this protection works. We're not dealing with simple kevlar, it's dozens of times stronger than kevlar, and has a layer of liquid armor. You'll see what happens when the two combines in a moment. Shoot." Warren wiggles his fingers, giving Elisabeth a nod. "I'll fix the helmet later, that'll require taking it apart entirely."

Elisabeth steps back, far away from the shotgun blast and possible rebounding ammunition. "I'm not convinced that we require this level of demonstration," she murmurs. Back behind one of the tables. Seriously. Who knows what will happen??

"I guess it's my birthday," Cardinal murmurs under his breath, raising the shotgun up to brace against his shoulder and leveling it at Warren's midriff. He squints slightly, and doesn't hesitate for more than a moment before unloading two barrels into his semi-'brother' with a thundrous roar of gunpowder.

Warren gets send off his feet, hitting the floor behind him after the shot. He seems like he could be possibly dead for a moment, then raises an arm with a thumbs up. The outer layer's color seems to be off, but the bullets don't seem to have actually penetrated it. "I'm probably bruised, but you don't have to worry until we start getting to assault rifles, that's when the rib cracking starts." He pushes himself up, the bullets mysteriously laying on his left and right instead of in front of him. "Now I'll show you just how this works."

Rubbing his stomach a bit, since he is quite sore, he presses a few buttons on the screen and replays the slow-mo. When the bullets impact with his stomach, the fabric seems to instantly harden as if it were capturing the bullets. Then when he hits the ground and the force of the blast has been safely absorbed, the fabric releases the bullets and they roll to the floor. "The outer layer is the nanotube fabric, that stops the penetration. The middle layer is the liquid, that hardens and absorbs the shock."

She can't help it — Elisabeth has been the target of a couple of pretty massive rounds before and it's not fun to watch someone get shot. She flinches. She actually makes a very … well… okay, we'll have to admit it, there's a girly kind of squeak that's hidden behind the blast. Clearing her throat, she peeks around to see Warren, the moronic human crash test dummy standing up. "Warren…. For Christ's sake, that much we both already knew from Horizon armor. You didn't have to volunteer for damage." She looks between the men. "Unless this is some brother bonding thing that I'm totally clueless about, of course," she snorts. Cuz who the hell knows with these two?

Cardinal grunts softly as the kick-back drives against his shoulder, but he knew well enough to roll with the impact. The shotgun's dropped down a bit, and he brings one hand up to rub against the sore muscle from it - it probably won't bruise, but it's a near thing. "We are not related," he mutters in response to Elisabeth's comment, stepping over towards the other man as he stands up, gaze sweeping the armour for damage and then turning to watch the replay. "Interesting. How does it deal with rounds that're better at penetration?"

"I had to show you, this is obviously much thinner than Horizon armor, so I didn't expect you to take my word for it and be completely confident." Warren presses a finger against the chest of his suit in a testing manner. "The problem with rounds that are good at penetration is that this is a fabric. It would take some amazing bullets to actually rip the fabric itself, or even penetrate the liquid layer, but large rounds could potentially push with such a force that the armor itself is what penetrates your skin. This isn't a design flaw, it's just something that's dependent on the speed and length of the bullet, versus the time it takes for the liquid to instantaneously harden and the flexibility of fabric. In a nutshell, it's highly unlikely that most bullets will go through you, but it's more than possible that particularly high caliber assault rounds can still kill you if you take it in a certain area. The good news is that most rounds aren't long enough to reach the spine if you're shot from the front."

He grabs a 223 caliber bullet from one of the tables, then a piece of clay, pushing the bullet into the clay and turning it around to show Cardinal. "This 223 caliber bullet's impact, that's about how far into you it would likely get before stopping, depending on the gun."

As she listens to the explanation, Elisabeth is paying close attention. "So it's just essentially a thinner version of the Horizon liquid metal armor, yeah?" She erks and walks forward to eye the round and the clay. "Truth be told, that's better than regular kevlar, really," she tells Richard quietly. It sort of alarms people to realize that kevlar is not the be-all, end-all when it comes to body armor. It's good, but still.

"I suppose it'll have to do. It's a damn sight better than kevlar, at the very least, yeah," Cardinal says as he looks over the bullet-penetrated clay appraisingly, "And it's intimidating as hell, I'll give it that. What sort've sensory suite does the helmet have?"

"Right now only the ones I stated, night and heat vision. I'm looking into others, but I can't imagine any others doing much more than adding to the expense." Warren moves over his tables again, sitting the clay and bullet down, then grabs a flamethrower and arms it at his left arm. "When the inner temperature gets one degree close to causing severe burns, a mist of Novec 1230 fluid will spray until the inner temperature of the armor has lowered to safer levels." He demonstrates this by pulling the trigger of the flamethrower against his arm until it's completely on fire, and after a while a fine mist starts to spray from the silvery nodes until the fire is out completely.

"GAh!" Elisabeth yelps, jumping back. "Goddamnit, Warren. You are sincerely a psychotic moron! Will you please use a dummy for the rest of this demo??" she demands. Christ! She looks at Cardinal with narrowed blue eyes. "Are you sure you're not related? You remember that whole thing about demented plans?" She shakes her head and looks back at Warren. "All right, seriously now…. how soon can you be ready to deploy a couple of generic ones?" she wonders. "And how good are the optics in the helmet?" She glances at Cardinal. "You can use mine to look through if you want, but I'm not using it."

"Warr— " The sudden roar of the flamethrower has Cardinal backpeddling swiftly, one hand raising to shadow his eyes away from the glare of the fire. He exhales a hiss under his breath, "Fuck that's bright. Jesus. Is his arm still there? Gonna be a minute before I can see anything again."

"That reminds me, I forgot to disable the laser defense systems that I implemented early to keep you from spying on me. I guess it's lucky no alarms were accidentally triggered." Warren shrugs and sits the flamethrower down, then cracks his knuckles. "The vision is just fine, it's a panorama, and with my ability exact measurements aren't difficult at all. When the final designs are completed, it won't feel like wearing a helmet at all. I think I can complete three more suits in a week and a half, maybe sooner."

"They don't do anything except annoy me when I'm corporeal, you realize," Cardinal mutters under his breath, rubbing at the corner of his eyes with thumb and forefinger for a moment, "…good, good. I might want to get some people in suits for a test run at the next major event that we might think Humanis is going to target, when you've got enough made."

Elisabeth throws up her hands and tells Richard, "Yes, his bloody arm is still there. Although if he's not damn careful, I'm going to remove his kneecaps with a 9mm slug in each one." She sounds perturbed. "I'm telling you… retarded little brothers should be contained for their own — and everyone else's! — safety!" she mutters in an undertone.

She levels narrowed blue eyes on him, calculating time. "Shit… that's too bad," Elisabeth adds absently. "Won't work for this weekend, but…." She tilts her head, a sly smile creeping up. "But mine's ready to run, right?" she asks.

"Your suit's good to go, I'm still considering finalized features, but right now it's good to go, and the helmet is as protective as the final one will be, just the final helmet will be smaller." Warren removes his helmet and tosses it over to her. "Just wear mine, the motorcycle helmets are the same size."

"You aren't supposed to do side work like that, Liz," Cardinal points out with a sharp, dubious look in her direction, squinting a little still, "You could get into trouble."

"Oh for the love of….." Elisabeth shoots both her eyebrows to her hairline and stares at him. Incredulity is written in every line of her body. "You know what? I'm not touching that. Not with a ten foot pole. Because …. because…. I was out there playing terrorist games while you were still… picking pockets and stealing cars!" she splutters. "You wanna know what's going to get me in trouble? Somewhere down the line here in the range of 'heavily pregnant', I'm going to be seeking asylum from the Ferry if we don't change things pretty drastically. And they're going to be at a point where they may not keep our child out of the hands of the goddamn government. So you know what? Fuck the getting in trouble, if I have to. I can't just sit on my hands all the time."

"You got two women pregnant? I've gone through more women than I can literally remember, and as far as I know I'm child free." Warren rolls back in his chair, spinning a few times. "Elle wants kids. I said I'd marry her if she wanted. But really, condoms, they're fun! I could make you some if you need any. Maybe I should market my condoms… Raytech Penile Containment Units."

"You know that's not what I meant, Liz…" Cardinal turns on her with a frown, both arms folding over his chest, "…you were warned already about being too closely associated with Redbird, and if you really think that standing around playing bodyguard to an art show is going to seriously change the-" Then he's falling into sputtering, "For the love of God, Warren!"

Well, that entirely derails her train of thought. "An art show? What?" And then Warren pipes up and Elisabeth looks confused. "Okay…. " Now she just looks between them. And can't help herself from chuckling. "I don't even know what what to say."

"I should give you both the company care package." Warren stands up and starts marching to Elisabeth and the suit, rubing his chin. "Now I think you should get naked so I can show you how to put this suit on."

"Warren Ray," Cardinal states, one hand coming up to rub the bridge of his nose with a pained expression, "I am still holding a shotgun. I just… I just felt the sudden need to remind you of this fact."

She goes from laughter back to incredulity, though… well, it's somewhat amused. Because retarded little brothers get… a little bit of slack. "You will never get that lucky in this lifetime, my dear," Elisabeth retorts mildly.

"Well, alright. Cardinal, you should turn around, since it looks like we'll have to go with option B. Watch carefully." Warren reaches up and raises his collar, then starts pressing a button on the inner fabric in a particular sequence. That's when a light hiss comes from the nodes all over it, and the suit expands and falls from his body and down to his feet. "You have to go commando under the suit, but this is how you put it on."

He reaches down and lifts the mass of fabric back up, all of it rather loose as he makes sure his fingers are back into the gloves of it. then he squeezs an area of the wrist and the sound of suction is heard before the suit tightens around his body again.

"Oh, for the…" Cardinal promptly turns around, one hand coming up to shield his eyes again, "…love of God. Again. Jesus."

Elisabeth's blue eyes go wide as the suit falls, and she looks …. stunned. "Weeelllll, shit," she drawls. And then she glances at Richard and says, "There are many things I could say right now, but suffice to say you've got nothing to worry about, love." When she looks back, the suit seems to be sucking itself back onto his body and Elisabeth just shakes her head. "You are completely socially inept, Warren. Don't do that again, please."

"If you paid attention then I won't have to. This is serious business, we can't worry about penises and vaginas at a time like this." Warren states quite seriously, then sits back in his chair and nods to the elevator, which is the only way out of this room… seemingly. "I think we're done here today."

"As your business partner in this," Cardinal says with a heavy sigh of breath, "I'd like to request a design modification that allows the wearer to wear underwear at least. Even if it has to be specially made underwear. For Christ's sake, that's a sexual harassment lawsuit waiting to happen right there." He shakes his head a little, "Still, it's… impressive." He offers the shotgun back, butt-first, "Keep working on it."

"I would have listened just fine to you explain the matter, you didn't have to demonstrate, I promise," Elisabeth says calmly. She grins at him. "Personally, I just think you're a show-off. With nothing to be ashamed of, to be sure, but … unnecessary." She puts a hand on Richard's arm and nudges him. "All right, then, now that the show and tell is done for today… let me know when you need me to come and actually test-run the suit for you. I'm going to go pour a stiff drink or four into your traumatized not-quite-brother here. See you later."

"Take that suit and helmet with you, bring them back when you're done. Unlike Horizon armor there's not really a charge needed. The helmet uses a special battery so I only need to see it every week or so, depending on the amount of use." Warren takes the shotgun back and takes a seat in his chair, beginning to rapidly take it apart. "I'll add underwear, if you must have it."

"Yes, Warren," Cardinal's slowly shaking his head as he walks to the elevator, "I don't know how I could possibly explain… but yes, I must have underwear."

Elisabeth just laughs all the way out.


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