Come Equipped (SS)

If he could change the world in just one way, Caesar would be unable to decide between his many aspirations. However, that list included the creation of a furniture chain which furnished for those of minuscule stature. The desk and chair sizes humans catered for were unsuited to his needs. Thank goodness he was capable of great bounds in relation to his size. The twisted surgeon sat down in a high chair – its front rest ripped out – and scribbled studiously onto some parchment.

Littered about his desk were a pile of similar sheets, penned with annotations and amendments. Caesar was in the initial stages of writing an academic article. His handwriting was identical to the man who'd reared and raised him, down to a flickered flourish on the letter 'a'. Though the simian's brain had memorised many different styles, he found it fitting to mimic his creator. The man had many admirable qualities, the majority of which he had – unwittingly or not – passed on to his creation.

Caesar's pen came to a halt as he hit another mental block in his thesis. Knowledge didn't come easily. While he was intelligent for his species, Caesar was still a numbskull by academical standards. This inferiority tempered his soul with unwanted humility. For that reason alone he would break any moral taboo in furthering his research.

The laboratory in which Caesar worked was an odd contrast. His meticulous nature met the sullied habits of an animal. While beakers and books may be in order they were certainly unhygienic. A downy orange fluff accumulated at the room's edges, attesting to Caesar's shedding problem. Most concerning was a waste bucket placed in the corner. He could use a toilet, but had always found the act inconvenient. When in the comforts of his own lab he would have subordinates empty the pail instead.

Otherwise a sterile refrigerator held all his biological samples, safeguarded from his daily routine. A mechanical workshop stretched along the back wall, next door was a small operating theatre. Anything and everything a mad scientist could want. And yet he still craved more.

As Tex walked into the workshop, she couldn't help being...completely and utterly relieved that the suit she wore did not allow in any gas from the outside world. Half of her wanted to throw up her shield just for safety.

Walking around slowly, the beakers and such were lined up quite neatly. That only stood as contrast to how disgusting the actual room itself was. It radiated with filth and, likely, disease. Checking around the room, Tex looked for some brilliant yet disgusting scientist that called to lab home, all she saw was a monkey though...a writing monkey.

Looking around one more time, she decided she may as well call for him, seeing as her motion trackers were stuck offline after the fight with Chrystal. "Caesar? I was sent here by Jemmy so that you could fix my armor." She called, hoping for an answer.

Busy trying to grasp at a sentence structure, Caesar did not look up immediately. Only once it was formulated did his pen get placed delicately aside as a pair of inquisitive eyes stared across the office floor. For a stretch of time that could be deemed awkward the simian did not react. Then at last he sighed, “Please, could you call me Doctor C?”

Standing up, Caesar leaped onto his writing desk, shaking his pen to the ground, “I am trying to encourage my colleagues here to a better standard of academic recognition. Even if the greater scientific community deny such a right.” Behind him his tail swept out, scattering another pile of papers, though this act would appear to be deliberate, as he briefly turned and bared his teeth menacingly at the discarded sheets.

He took a straight posture, tucking both hands behind his back. With a faint sense of admiration Caesar noticed this warrior was still taller than him whilst he was standing on furniture. Healthy genetics in her family then. The surgeon approved, “So she wants me to be a blacksmith now.” Resentment was heavy in his tone. Recently Caesar had come to learn how little Jemmy valued his scientific breakthroughs.

“Very well. I... my, I can see this is no regular armour.” Perhaps there could be something of interest here after all. Caesar may have preferred biology, but he was no stranger to cutting-edge electronics technology. Shrewdly he calculated its significance, “You will tell me how it works, yes?”

So this school's doctor in everything involving electronics, biology and chemicals was...a monkey? For some reason...that didn't shock Tex as much as one might think. Was he maybe some form of experiment? The memories she had recovered from Omega told her that her military program often tried to increase the intellect of several rats and monkeys through AI or something similar for surveillance. Perhaps Doc C was one of these experiments.

As Caesar mentioned the academic values of the school, she thought back to her fight with Chrystal. Regardless what they really learned here, they weren't stupid, that was very much certain and Tex would sigh and press a button on her suit's gauntlet. This caused the suit to open all around her and let her step out of it. "Yeah, I'm not exactly from the Middle Ages." She said with a sigh.

"As for the inner workings..." Tex paused for a minute and turned her back to Caesar, allowing her to look over her armor. She wasn't entirely sure how it worked herself. She had always been told just to do her job and the suit would help her.

A bright white light would appear on her shoulder while the white chip on the back of her neck would begin to glow. As the light dimmed, a figure could easily be seen there, revealing the Omega AI. "That would be my department."

Omega turned and floated over to the monkey, looking him over. "I must admit, this is definitely a strange case. Never spoken of neural cybernetics with a primate before...but nonetheless..."

Making a gesture with his hand toward the suit he began a small lecture of sorts, explaining how the suit is built with a no-wires neural program with several enhancements including speed, thought, and a motion tracker, as well as how the only missing enhancements that were started but never completed were palm-sized propulsion engines to enable flight, and a strength enhancement due to Tex's already monstrous strength. "Now the suit itself cannot differ the general thoughts and commands, which is where I and my colleague come in. I am Omega, together with Theta and the other AI, we operate the MK1 armor for Ms. Texas."

He then crossed his arms, hoping he had not lost the simian at any point in his explanation. "The armor itself is not magical and needs to be charged, so beyond finding a simple charging station, we would need to repair the damage that your colleague caused that I simply could not repair from the inside."

As he was scrutinised, Caesar scrutinised the AI program back. Life in digitised form, truly a marvel of human ingenuity. A pity this was the only worthwhile breakthrough humanity had stumbled upon this decade. They put too much attention into their computers and not enough into the study of nature. A foolish philosophy, given the relatively unknown field of meta-human physiology.

This AI would be a welcome asset, "Yes. None the less." Caesar assured him with deliberate emphasis.

After a lengthy and thorough summary, Caesar finished underlining a word on his notepad and observed the closing remarks. In actuality this technology was way over his ability to fully comprehend. Thankfully the repair of such a marvel was a lesser challenge and within his capabilities. Standing on the shoulders of giants was what Caesar did best.

"This appears to be largely fringe science. Nothing of its kind exists by public record. However, I am a foremost expert on neurology in particular, and have dabbled in cybernetics. I could name several ground-breaking works by scientists which I have adopted the techniques of, including the infamous Doctor Animo. Your equipment is in safe, if small, hands." Having given his assurances, Caesar moved forward to touch the suit for a closer observation. He climbed up its outer casing and stopped to peer at a palm.

"Now this technology I have seen before. These miniature propulsion engines. I take it their application into this design was outsourced? Would explain why they went unfinished."

Omega nodded as he disappeared and reappeared on Caesar's shoulder, rubbing his chin. "According to my records that is a contributor as to why these were not completed. The other being Agent Texas' little 'incident' during a training session."

Tex shrugged, remembering the day all too well. 3 of her fellow agents had been shot by her that day, including New Hampshire, Georgia, and Virginia. Walking back with the simian and her AI, Theta appeared on the shoulder and pointed at the back of the armor, which had a larger piece of metal attached to it. "I don't have the records for this, but I think this is where the fuel went! Or maybe a jetpack or something!"

Omega looked down to his little brother and nodded as a sign of approval. "Sound logic, Theta. However, the schematics to the armor show that we ran into the issue of safety. It was entirely possible that the fuel would ignite and cause Texas to...well, explode." Tex looked up at Omega and raised an eyebrow. "I've done it before. It doesn't hurt that bad." She said, going to the back of her armor to check the energy cells. "Do you perhaps know something of rocket science, doctor?" Omega asked, turning his attention back toward the simian.

Caesar replied, "No. I do not know anything about rocket science. I am a monkey." There was a moment of awkward silence for having pointed at the elephant in the room. Or rather - monkey.

Caesar understood what the AI was getting at. This suit working at full capacity would be a glorious achievement. However, he had to weigh up the pros and cons of taking on a task not of his field. The most important of which was his tendency to understand the 'how' but not the 'why' of a project.

"My understanding of these matters is less than ideal. But it is possible for me to reverse engineer the technology in order to ascertain a deviation to the design I encountered. Once we know how they differ, it is easier to identify a feasible amendment. Implementing it, however, would take a degree of mathematical prowess I do not alone possess."

"In short, I would be working blind. I know what buttons to press, but not what function each of those buttons achieve. I am unable to create the algorithm-based simulations necessary to predict the outcome of working with highly volatile substances. It would be foolhardy to undertake such a venture."

"It's rocket science after all."

((OOC: Hope this works. ))

Theta popped up on Caesar's shoulder and giggled. "To be fair doc, I haven't heard of a monkey with experience in biological science either." Tex was looking over her armor, ripping out a power cell and putting it off to the side, knowing she could charge it herself later. It had been almost a year since she cleaned the thing. It was amazing how filthy it had become.

"You and I have something in common then doctor." Omega said, nodding. "I know the suit's inner workings, though I cannot actually prepare it myself...we may be of use to each other yet." He said with a devilish smile on his face. "Partners? Only for now, of course."