A Long Road (Hotwire, Ask)

Yang was busy at work in the Danger Room. It had been about 3 days since Miley's leaving, and Yang hadn't taken it well. Every friend she had just seemed to walk right back out on her. The team was a revolving door, and Yang was blaming herself, and she didn't take blame well. She had been working on some new martial arts moves, and as always she took to them well. Her near photographic memory let her memorize the forms with no difficulty. However, executing them was another story. She was still working on them, although they would make her a bit better of a fighter.

The simulation around her disappeared as Yang finished it. The gang simulations were in terrible pain at this point, probably because she was just...letting off steam at this point. "Yang? Maybe it's time to take a break..." The AI in the room said. Yang had made it to monitor the life signs and current state of the danger room users, make sure everything was safe. "No...I'm fine. Set me up with another one." The AI sighed, setting up the next simulation. Four men with blunt weapons, one with a gun. This is going to be easy.

Activating her gauntlets, Yang hopped right into the fray, nailing one of them directly in the jaw, easily dislocating his jaw and kicking him into the distance where he disappeared. The next thug attacked her from behind while the armed thug aimed at her. Yang blocked the strike from the weapon, punching him in the gut and flipping him over her head before kicking him into the armed thug. She then proceeded to use her bolas to wrap up the last two, ending the simulation.

"Enough with the kid stuff, give me a good one." She yelled at the AI, but it didn't respond, causing Yang to groan. "For the love of god, if everyone keeps leaving my team like this, I need to be ready to fight for real. I need to fight for myself. Give me a REAL simulation!"

Hotwire was walking down the hallways of the tower when he heard the noise of the simulation room. Sounds like yang was working on her training. Again. When he though about it, hotwire had yet to do any real training in there. And he did have some system patched he had been meaning to run.

He walked in the door to the control room and waited for her to finish.

"Hey yang. You want a real simulation. I'm about to patch up the simulator with some new scenarios." Hotwire said through the loudspeaker. He put a disc in the computer and the simulator would begin. The setting would be a mountain pass.

A man in strange grey and red robes stood towards the top of the pass. He threw he arms up and 2 rock golems rose from the ground and began to advance on her.

Yang wasn't expecting the new voice and she turned around to see Hotwire. "Yeah, thanks...boot it up." She said, arming her gauntlets as the new targets appeared. At that moment she assessed the situation. Two targets, too large to be faster than her. Huge bonus. Too bulky to be harmed by her, that wouldn't do. Instead of doing anything else, she launched herself forward as the golems rose, tackling the target to the ground and started mercilessly striking. Blow after blow. The simulation ended and she kept going, punching one last time where his face had been just a moment before and then she sighed, standing up to reveal she'd cracked the floor. "Gimme something else."

Hotwire looked in shock. "Whoa. That was fast." Hotwire said. She seemed livid. He could hazard a good guess why. Miley. She left a couple days before, and from what had heard, only one member remained who knew yang as long as Miley did. And while Hotwire, Energy Warrior, and Manic were new, he hoped they would go on to be great titans.

"Look. Do you need to talk?"

Yang shook her head, walking over to the punching bag when the AI shut off. It was obvious what it was doing, using a loophole in its programming to avoid obeying Yang. Can't obey if you're not turned on, right? With a few shots from normal jabs, Yang pulled back and used her gauntlet this time, knocking the punching bag right off it's chain. "No, I'm fine. With the way the team is going though...I need to be able to fight on my own, independently." She said, dropping down another bag and going to work on it with her new martial arts moves. She was getting pretty good.

Hotwire walked into the training room. "Don't count us out because of the past yang." Hotwire said.

"But you make a good point. There will be times when you might have to fight alone. Be it the rest of us are knocked out, or you're captured, it makes sense you would need more of an edge."

Hotwire began thinking.

"Do you have anything else in mind other than martial arts?"

Yang shrugged. "I dunno. New shots for my gauntlets? Gadgets? Maybe look for a way to be more stealthy." She finished the combo by punching the second bag off the hinges and turned to Hotwire, panting. "Why? Do you have something in mind?"

"Hmmm. Let's see what we can put together." Hotwire said. With that, hotwire began analyzing her gauntlets. After a few seconds he looked up.

"I've got some ideas." He said.

"I'll head down to the hangar. Bring me some of your shots, and any other gadgets you currently use." Hotwire said walking towards the door. Right as he was about to leave, he turned around.

"Write down anything else you think of. You're the boss remember?" Hotwire said.

Yang blinked. How stupid was she? She'd just flat out forgotten that Hotwire was a technokinetic? REALLY? It was his namesake! She nodded and went back to her room to grab her ammo pouch, as well as some sketches she'd done before running back down to the hangar to meet Hotwire.

Slapping the drawing on the table she smiled. "I kind of based it off of Batman. I figured I could sneak a lot better with it and won't be forced to gun through everything all the time. Besides, the screen that covers my eyes would be pretty cool!"

Hotwire went down to the hanger and began getting some tools ready. In addition, he brought out a large sheet of metal and placed it on the floor. Then yang came in with the designs.

"Hm. Interesting. We should probably start with the costume base, and build from that. If you don't have one, I can build one, but it might take a bit longer." Hotwire said scratching his head.

"I'll also need your gauntlets for modification."

Yang hesitated for a moment. Her gauntlets were basically all she had at this point. They were the main thing that made her...well, special. She slowly nodded and took them off. "Okay just...be careful with them."

"You got it." Hotwire said scanning them over. He then knew how they worked, in intricate detail. Beautifu firing mechnism. It would need to be modified for her new gadgets though.

"Perfect. Give me a few hours, and I should have some new upgrades for your gauntlets. In the meantime, see if you can find me a base for your new costume." Hotwire explained, turning back to the gauntlets.

Yang wasn't gone very long, because she'd actually gotten started on it already. It was a nomex-reinforced fabric and had a very sleek design...and it was black. That...isn't a common thing. Coming back down the elevator, she slapped the fabric on the table. "Alright, so I found this and I'm working on the name. I'm thinking like...Ranger or something."

"You can update the name in the database." Hotwire said picking up the fabric. He placed the partially completed design on the table and placed a metal slab over it. Laying his hand on it, he concentrated. He said.

"Go and get together anything else you want for this... it might take a while."