Modern Age Online

Kaleb stepped through the door to the last floor and let it close behind him. He was in another pitch black room. He gave an aggravated sigh as he leaned his head back to look up.

“Really? A dark room? That’s the finally challenge in your little test?” Kaleb asked loudly.

“No! Actually this last floor is usually a combat test. But for you I have set up something different.” Obadiah answered.

Kaleb nodded as he heard a loud clank of a switch and he had to shield his eyes from the sudden glow of an overhead light bulb. The orange glow cascaded down in a large cone, bringing an 8-foot tall bipedal metal suit into sharp relief. Kaleb had only seen the earlier model in a picture in Nova Hardware, but it was clearly Dr. Kersait’s Exosuit.

“Hol~y shit!” Kaleb whispered as he circled the blue and silver painted Exosuit.

“Allow me to introduce the Streak Exosuit Mark VII. Old Wolfy had the original design blueprints worked up before he left to run his overblown tech store. Myself and some other trusted heroes have worked on completing his design.”

Kaleb barely heard Obadiah as he slowly took in the exosuit. Tall and sleek, the suit had long arms down to the suits knees. He could see several obvious weapons; A rotary cannon on the left arm, a retractable blade or pile-bunker on the right. The legs had odd exhaust stacks on either calf, but he couldn’t see any propulsion system on the legs. He stopped at the back of the suit seeing an access panel leading to the inner workings of the suit. Kaleb felt his tongue flick out and lick his snout as he reached up to the panel.

“Stop! I haven’t even told you the test yet!” Obadiah screamed out from the darkness around Kaleb.

Kaleb shook his head and took a step away from the machine. “What do you want me to do?”

“There are several minor software errors and mechanical problems. Your goal is to fix the Mark VII back to working order.” Another light came on nearby showing a wheeled table full of tools and mobile diagnostic station.

Kaleb moved over to the tools and pushed them closer to the exosuit. “You should know: Roy doesn’t want to be The Streak.”

“HA! Who said it was for him?” Obadiah asked.

Kaleb shook his head as he took off his lab coat and set it across the table. “Looking to get back in the game old man?”

As Kaleb pulled the diagnostic station closer, Obadiah said. “Never left. I figured out how to be quiet.”

Kaleb took the wires on the diagnostic station and try to find their corresponding sockets on the Exosuit. “Really? So what have you been up to?”

Obadiah chuckled dryly. “Hehehe, don’t you worry about that. You are still in the minor leagues, son. There are folks in the majors who won’t touch my type of work.”

“Ominous.” Kaleb said as he removed the back access panel to see if the diagnostic station attached back there.

“Not really. Work has been boring, mostly. Although lately...” Obadiah trailed off as Kaleb got the back panel off.

Sure enough, the access panel had marked sockets for diagnostic wires. But when he removed the panel he had revealed the suits power supply. A foot long cylinder filled with a bright purple liquid seemed to power the suit. As he watched, bubbles grew and popped within the liquid. The cylinder seemed to vibrate whenever a bubble popped.

“Lately what?” Kaleb asked as he reached into the suit.

“Hmm, let me just say: all ain’t right in the state of Texas recently.” Obadiah said.

Kaleb grasped the slim cylinder and tugged lightly. “You’re being ominous again, gramps.”

The cylinder came free easily, and he pulled it out of the suit. The cylinder was almost unbearably hot in his hand. He could feel it vibrating in his hand and as he peered closer, he thought he could see minute movement in the liquid. Obadiah coughed loudly as Kaleb twisted the cylinder in his hand looking at both ends.

“I can assure you, we didn’t tamper with the power supply. I don’t know anybody that stupid.”

Kaleb traced his finger down a wide brown etching on the side of the cylinder. “What IS it?”

“Haha! What do you think it is?”

“It looks organic, and it even feels alive. Is it alien?” Kaleb asked.

“Yes, it is and you're not wrong overall. That is Wolfgang’s own proprietary power source. Suspended in that solution exist billions of bacteria. Normally these bacteria have a life cycle of around 30 days however when the suit is active it sends a current through the cylinder. The electricity destroys the bacteria resulting in a massive expulsion of energy that the cylinder channels into the suit.” Obadiah explained.

“They generate that much power?”

“They are very special bacteria. Wolfgang cultured and froze large batches for his power units.”

Kaleb smiled as he put the cylinder back. “So should you be telling me how it works? What if I replicate it?”

Obadiah guffawed. “HAHAHAHAHA! Good luck with that. The bacteria would be hard to find.” The old Super coughed loudly before he added under his breath. “Unless you know an Ultrarian.”

Kaleb snapped his head up as he finished attaching the diagnostic wires. He wanted to ask another question, but he stopped himself. The old man probably wouldn’t answer his questions and he would have to injure the damn blueberry first. But once he did, he was damn sure going to get the arrogant bastard’s blood.

Kaleb moved over to the diagnostic station and booted up the screen. Once that was going he set about removing the various panels around the Exosuit. Luckily the suit seemed designed for easy maintenance, with easy to access panels on the arms and legs. He got the last of the armored coverings off when the diagnostic station beeped obnoxiously.

Kaleb looked over the readout seeing several obvious coding errors. But as he scrolled down to the more mechanical problems he had to read through the error logs twice.

“What in the hell is a Quad-flux Octagistor?” Kaleb asked confused.

Obadiah just laughed as Kaleb looked back to the display. There were over 7 mechanical errors related to parts he had never even heard of.

“Does that mean you can’t do it?” Obadiah asked chuckling to himself.

Kaleb cracked his neck as he tried to find the error path on the diagnostic readout. “No, I’ll do it. I might just learn something. But, don’t blame me if you explode the next time you take this thing out.”

“No, the rules are that you fix it completely.”

“Oh I will, I meant that I will plant a bomb on this damn thing when I am done.”

“Ha! Well the jokes on you. There is an emergency trans-mat in the back cushion. We learned that lesson during the war. Almost lost my arm, it pissed old Wolfy off, I got blood in his precious arm padding.” Obadiah said.

Kaleb carefully studied each line of the diagnostic display as Obadiah droned on about the many injuries he had gained. He scratched his head as he looked up at the 8 foot tall exosuit that now seemed to bear down on him. The suit was beyond his current capabilities but he hoped the diagnostic station would help him pin down the trickery problems.