Seth berthed his exoskeleton back into his personal workshop with a weighty reverberating thunk. All that conductive metal, various linings and gels he'd collected over the last few days, and ancillary wiring already oganized and labeled on either side of him.

  The culmination of ten years of design work and planning was finally upon him. The door to his garage was shut tight, couldn’t have anyone know just yet and interrupt what he had to do to get it all together. Also battlesuits weren’t exactly legal to just make on your own.

  A few magnetic latches and a rattling hoist, and the skeleton was thoroughly set and elevated. Everything was ready. So he backed up and stretched out his hands.

  Focusing, concentrating power into them. Power enough to destroy, to over energize and melt, to magnetize and ruin.

  But also to create.

  Electrical arcs started racking between his fingers, ionized air particles beginning to glow around his arms. In one swift motion, he pulled his hands closed, locking in the amplitude so it was constant and known. It was mostly for show, but it had at least some purpose to it.

  He picked up a block of conductive alloy, the heavy metal weighing down his arm, and moved it over up to station. It reacted almost instantly to the power exuding from his hand, visibly shrinking and becoming denser and denser around his grip. Soaking up the electricity he’d offered it, using it to crystallize fully.

  The flaky brittle exterior that so many passed off as a flaw was it key strength. Melted together in grinded powder, the mixed together conductors were subjected to extreme electrical currents as it cast. The result was a raucous storm of sparks and ruined molds, boiled layers only just staying together. But, also pathways between those layers.

  Ones that, when offered what Seth gave off, turned the whole of its atomic structure into a interlocking puzzle. And both a battery and an extension alike. But with his other hand pressing down on a corner of the shrunken bar, the metal gave way like clay. And shrank even tighter together into the desired shape.

  The Garkah had devised this stuff long ago, but had moved on from it. Made it a common sight. An alloy that showed the true extent of their abilities, yet remained strong when allowed to settle in with its feasted upon hoard. And oh boy was it greedy.

  Though that was their society in a nutshell, so it held no surprises. Metal was a literal part of their bodies, nearly flowed under their touch if they were skilled enough. And they had made far more stalwart amalgams in their heyday… And near their end.

  Within a few minutes Seth moved his hand away and the metal bar was now shaped into a plate, the top plate of the helmet. Elongated and flattened, with two cut outs for it to fit onto a hinge. But he took the plate to his workstation first, it needed more layers and additions. Namely the ones from those stacked up boxes.

  He’d had to order out for two layers, one the ceramic filler from Magna-ton. Mixed with a heap of ferrite shavings and little more than expensive pottery. The other though was a protective and adaptive gel, so the suit could fit tight without chafing.

  The ferroceramics, something Seth came up with after getting a rather in depth military contract, acted to dissipate kinetic energy impacting the suit. Shattering like said pottery instead of letting the force through. But the fillings were heavily magnetized before mixture, resulting in that shattered plate reforming to a degree, meaning it could continue to act as ceramic plating without the need to replace it. Just add in more power to compensate. And he would have plenty of that.

  The gel layer was full of ferrite much the same, but to a finer degree. This allowed the Garkah to manipulate the gel layer as needed, so Seth wouldn’t get crushed should a theoretical impact be too extreme. And to keep it snug, if not skin tight.

  Lastly to go into this plate was a view screen and vision system wiring bundle, a much smaller and simpler set of eyes than the recon suite he tested before. No sense limiting his vision just because he had to wear armor. A bit of hardened wiring sparing it from the inevitable overload it would endure.

  The plate completed, he slid it into place on the helmet frame… On his workstation, not on his suit. This frame looked almost nothing like the one still on the exoskeleton, almost snout like and with hinging sockets for a lot of other plates.

  Work on one plate done, Seth moved on to the rest. Each plate formed by hand to the desired shapes printed out on the station’s surface. Each needing to be at least close to exact before being fitted with layers, and either cushioned or wired up depending on where it went. A painstaking process, but a fulfilling endeavor. The cheek plates slotting into their lotused frame, the neck layers bent at just the right angle to slide smooth over each other and yet articulate fully. The small fiddly extras that slide into place, slotting where the top plate meet the main skeleton in excess cut outs.

  Last to go in were the eyes, heavily plated glass with the main cameras formed to the slit wide sockets. A little more aesthetic than functional, but he could see through them if all else failed.

  The helmet done, he lifted it up. It was heavy, really heavy, but he grabbed it by the inside collar with one hand and took it over to the exoskeleton. With his free hand he twisted the frame’s helmet and pulled it off, tossing it aside like a burned disguise. A meaty clang signaled the real helmet falling into place, snapping it onto it rotation joint. A perfect fit, but was only the first part down. A whole body was left to go.

  Seth worked for hours on end, shaping metal, fitting, layering, creating a suit like nothing the world had ever seen before. Sure it had seen great models and daring feats, heroes in full plate do tremendous things. But this was his, and it would be a true extension of what he could do.

  When the plates were done he moved on to the servos he’d ordered alongside the layers. Magnetic levitation servos, electromagnetic bearings that could hold up all this massed metal with barely a hint of resistance, while being damn near whisper quiet. Each needed to be crafted by hand from the parts ordered, though that didn't have much meaning anymore. He couldn’t trust overseas manufacturing, but neither could he trust local assembly.

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Even a single speck of that ferrite dust could disrupt them, so it was all on him and the Garkah to put them right. To make sure they ran smooth and played their full part in the whole of the suit. Acting as gateways between those capacitor-like plates. Taking in almost as much power as them, but using it rather than storing it. And there were a lot of them. From the main rings around each joint, to the tiny disks in each finger, even to the ones hidden deep in between armor plates.

  Oddly, there were a few things like that all around the suit. Expansion joints that went farther than needed, overlapping plates that didn’t seem necessary, transforming sections and hinges to everything inside, even retractable claws. The Garkah said it was an eventuality, a battle mode of sorts. Seth just saw it as disparate pieces, yet knew their significance. Knew what it meant to them. A familiar face to change perceptions when the worst came about. To see it doing good rather than… what they did.

  The last addition though was practical, but still odd. A port, mechanism, and piping for a fire prevention system. Run all throughout the torso and extremities so he didn’t suffocate on flame retardant. Seth tested it with his workshop’s fire extinguisher, tearing away its hose and plugging the valve right into the port in the left wrist, firing it with a just managed hiss. It filled the small pressurized pipes that were its only storage, waiting to be released at the squeeze of a hand.

  The Garkah were the ones to require this addition, seeing the limitations of Earth’s conductors and their tendency to meltdown if too much energy was put through them. And in battle Seth was going to be needing and output a lot of energy. Safeties in place, the suit was finished in its assembly, except for one final touch.

  Looking out at his work, Seth felt an itch. An aesthetic need to put something right. He stepped up and pulled the master release. Panels opening heavy but prepared for their new weight. Seth already had his connector suit on and fully fitted, no baggy clothes to misalign his movements. He snapped it into its ports and locked the two of them together at long last. The panels closing over, sending him into darkness and metallic air for a brief second before the view screen flicked on.

  The onboard computer, or better yet the designated Garkah analysts who tapped into the suits hardcoded systems, scanned for defects and ran the small vents to clear the air up. Various diagnostics ran through from within the makeshift control room they had set up in his mental spotlight. A common feeling of all sensors green and clear coming through. So Speaker gave the go ahead.

  “The suit is perfectly functional, all systems are working better than expected.”

  Threat stepped on to the control room floor, feelings in sync with Seth’s.

  “You and I both know functionality isn’t everything. Gotta make sure this thing looks amazing after all this work.”

  ‘My thoughts exactly.’

  Seth stepped off the berth with a tremendous unwieldy stomp, rattling the work lights and tools hung all around. A careful passing of all the excess materials and plating, a slow clearing of a space in the center of the garage. Each step and lean moving nearly a full ton of weight around like it was nothing, joints gliding along without strain but from muscle beneath it all. A deep focus needed to keep it all from overwhelming simple strength, but was little more than training weight for the power coursing through Seth’s body.

  But… the suit was odd looking, the shiny titanium frame bordering each plate clashed against their matte exteriors. So Seth and Threat decided to test the suits mettle… err… metal. And see just how worthy he was of having their power.

  From his central point, he focused, not on his hands, not on his body, but the whole of the suit surrounding him. The iron particles in the gel, the ferroceramic plates, the main capacitor plates over them, everything. The flow of energy from the Garkah controllers to the suits systems, the flow from him to the capacitors. Years of training and lectures paying off as his senses tightened down those lines of electricity. Feeling their ebb and flow in frantic order, like blood and nervous signal wrapped into one. Before all of it fell onto those aesthetically pale plates, each unrefined section, each part of this expansive battery. Each separated and divided.

  ‘Not anymore.’

  Seth doubled his focus in a flash down those plates, his will becoming electricity and heating them to a steaming disinfecting. Controllers monitored their hardcoded sensors made sure the suit wasn’t about to meltdown.

  “You will exceed the baseline heat tolerance in 15 seconds. Make this quick.”

  ‘Only need 5.’

  With little warning Seth’s full power tore across the suit, danced across its outer edges like plasma fingers shaping it further. Arcing surges blurring out his garage for all its used up need. Plates spread as if they were under enormous pressure. Magnetic pull or focused might no longer mattering in their distinctions, this was his power to wield, his will made manifest.

  The frame disappeared under reforming metal, joints covered in extending plating, borders lost to smooth angular surface. And last, a light grey sheen brought to the surface of the pliable metal, polished in scoring rake till that matte lost out. Though not quite to reflecting gleam or chrome exuberance. Just enough to say this was his, this was him.

  A cloak of heated air and steam the only by-product of his exertion from here on out. The suit was done, and ready for a real fight. Heavy gauntlet crushing tight their new splendor, metallic scrape and slam scratching at the surface, but reforming under directed familiar drive. It was a true extension now, his and his alone. It was time for Seth to use all this power for good. It was time for him to join the League like he’d wanted. Since that day so very long ago.

  Or… well tomorrow was the day to join the League. That tight fist slumping a little, Seth finally feeling all the weight bearing down on him. This suit had no motors to carry this bulk around so it was all him moving it. And focusing that much energy around was taxing to an extreme he barely ever reached. Not to mention it was already dark outside.

  ‘Wait, why can I-’ *crash*

  The garage door just fell in like a crumpled tissue trying to stand up. In fact a lot of metal in the garage was pulled and bent inward toward him. All his focus and effort apparently not as focused as he thought. And he probably overdid it a little.

  A straining but smirk filled retreat back to the berth, what was left of it, and he was hitting the primary release latch around his neck again. The whole helmet rising up slowly so as not to catch and rip anything off. Though it still could fold up and over his back if he hit a separate button inside. The rest of the suit opening up to a short puff of more heated air. A hot box of ozone and searing metal. But it was well at truly his, even as he stumbled out and rolled as much muscle as he could for relief.

  A careful hand pushed the crumpled garage door back in line, trying at least a little bit not to send it screeching for mercy. The lock was toast, but it was fine. Someone would need a heavy lift crane to get his suit out now. Sorely eking into the night, he climbed the stoop back into his building, slowly ascending the stairs to his door so Ms. Mahan wouldn't be disturbed.

  He pulled into his apartment and pulled off the connector suit, judging a few of the sockets just in case they’d melted a little. But the soreness was getting to him, so he left in for later. He was already set for tomorrow, so the bed was too inviting. Catching him as he crashed into it and let the future lull him to sleep.

  A future… smothered in his past.