The Adventures of Mavus Pt. II

"The Adventures of Mavus Pt. II" is a continuation from the The Adventures of Mavus series. Mavus Shaw has been enlisted in The Inquisition, working under college crush Junon Gareth. The series begins with The Inquisition under attack by The New Militia, under the command of Blackflame.

Chapter 7 - David vs. Goliath Gone Wrong

You know the old saying, nothing starts the day better than a good old fashioned war at 6am in the morning. Junon was still frozen in fear. Suddenly, Conlan appeared, rallying all the troops.

"Warriors of The Inquisition. The time has come for us to lay our lives in battle. As we speak, the armies of Ariandal approach. All who are able, gear up. This includes you recruits. We will not yield to our enemy. We are SOLDIERS!" Conlan raised his sword, causing the entire Inquisition soldier field to cheer. Truman managed to stumble next to me. "What about breakfast?" I looked at the elf with disbelief. "Dude, the New Militia is literally invading our home and that's the first thing you're worried about?"

Kyrael met up with us. Conlan gave her a nod. "It's time. I will send my forces and we will battle the enemy head on. I've also redirected my armies from remote areas to return to the Fortress to activate a pincer move." Kyrael gave him a look of approval. "Yuko has also began to send scouts to deal some guerrilla based damage to the enemy. Lazarus and several of the officers have begun to evacuate the people to the bunkers. We will not fall today." Conlan nodded grimly. "To the end."

I interrupted the two. "Umm". Conlan and Kyrael looked at me. I continued. "I can probably take them all out with a few heavy hitting armada units, but I'll need some space." Kyrael grinned. "That's the spirit Mister Shaw! Conlan, redirect your troops and send the command to keep their distance!" Conlan sent the command. "Do it, Maven."

I concentrated. It's time to begin operation hellfire. I concentrated as hard as I could, and yelled, summoning everything I could to create a massive battalion of war machines.

"Um... what are you doing?" Kyrael asked. I opened my eyes. Nothing happened. I had my hands clenched and assumed the form of a sumo wrestler, veins popping out of the side of my head, but no machine was manifested. In fact, not even a single lightbulb was made. I stared at my hands like an idiot.

"Wait, this isn't supposed to happen. My powers-" Oh no. I knew I shouldn't have been binging on the internet last night. I was completely depleted after that crazy spurt with Amana's team the other day, and instead of sleeping I decided to procrastinate. To completely recharge my batteries, I needed at least 15 hours of sleep. Instead, I had a solid 30 minutes.

Conlan figured it out. "You've run dry. That little display of power this morning must have depleted you of stamina. So you do have limits..."

Before Conlan could finish, a roar of chanting and cheers erupted from the Inquisition army. Suddenly, the members of Darkstar emerged from the tower. Jason landed in front of Kyrael. "We will take on Blackflame. You guys worry about his army." Kyrael gave him a look of concern. "Jason, are you sure? Blackflame has likely gotten much stronger, you said yourself that you can't beat him in a direct fight." Jason shook his head. "We only need to drive him back. With Mavus on board, we should be able to send the armies away, and Blackflame should retreat. I doubt Calliope has any plans to take us out immediately when there are still so many members of Croft living here she could corrupt."

Jason unsheathed his daggers, and powered up. The dude was so cool. 6 foot 1 inches of pure muscle. Most people who acted like that were always edgy teens who thought wearing all black would make them cool. But this guy actually pulled it off. Jason leaped in the air, with the other Darkstar members in tow. Everybody was cheering them on. Truman was literally crying. "So beautiful..."

I watched as Jason yelled, his daggers elongating into massive black tonfas. So freaking cool. Blackflame looked up, and met the strike with his claw, causing a massive tornado of wind pressure, black magic, and dark fire. Even cooler. The two began to fight as the rest of Darkstar joined in. Jason was surprisingly putting up a good fight, but then Blackflame smiled, and slipped his strikes and struck him in the chest, sending The Black Chad through several trees. Well that ended quick. Jason yelled, and re-engaged the former Darkstar member.

Conlan looked Kyrael in the eye. "I will be joining my troops in battle." Kyrael nodded. "So will I." I looked at both of them. "Wait hold on! I'm still depleted of power! What am I supposed to do?" Conlan glanced at me. "You'll need to figure out how to recharge quickly. Metahuman abilities are out of my specialty, but I think Junon might have something for you. Act quickly, boy! You are no longer a recruit. You are a soldier of the Inquisition!"

I returned to my squad. Junon was on the ground now, her hands clutched to her knees. I went up to her. "Junon, Conlan says you might have something to help me temporarily recharge my abilities. Can you help me out?" Junon was still shaking, her eyes in tears. Well... shit.

Khione and Veran looked at me. Veran unsheathed his broadsword. "We will join Conlan's forces in battle. Junon is facing inner turmoil. We must continue the fight without her!" Khione summoned her ice powers and gave me a thumbs up. "Be safe you guys. We'll be back in a jiffy." I grinned.

Truman was shaking too. "Mavus... what are we going to do? Our captain..." Suddenly, a scream erupted from behind the walls. The soul beasts had broken through the lines of defence, slaughtering our Garrison troops. Mages began to make their way into the Fortress. I had to get that item fast.

I ran up to Junon and put my hands on her shoulders. "Junon! Please! You need to help me restore my powers! Our team needs their captain!" Junon was still staring at the army, right at Blackflame. "It's no use... Sam... he'll kill us all... and it was all our fault..." She wasn't going anywhere. I started to shake her, causing her head to bob up and down. "Junon!!! The enemy's breached our defences, we need you. Please. Wake up!" Suddenly, a huge silhouette grabbed me by my shirt, and threw me to the side. I rolled like a rag doll, my hands and legs were scratched up bad. I looked up. A mage with strength amplification powers. Truman screamed, trying to drag Junon away, but the mage grabbed the elf and punching him in the gut, causing him to fall on his knees. My vision turned red with rage.

"Hey roid rage! Over here! You want a fight? Bring it on!" I assumed the stance that Junon had taught me in self defence class. I guess she was right. It didn't matter how powerful I was, there would eventually come a time where I needed to fight hand to hand. The mage laughed at me. "Little man, you will join us." The mage launched a punch, and I used one of the techniques Junon had shown me. I slipped the punch, using his momentum, and threw an uppercut as hard as I could into the place under his neck.

Crack! Oh God, for the love of God, my hand! I yelled, looking at my hand. Yeah, I definitely broke something. What was the dude made out of? Pure steel? The mage chuckled, and swatted me in the stomach. A wave of nausea rolled over me as I was sent flying in front of Junon, who was still frozen. Truman healed me, but then the mage approached him, causing the elf to yelp and run for his life. The mage knocked him out with a blow to the head. He then turned to me and Junon.

Junon was still frozen, and I suddenly realized I was the only thing keeping the mage from getting to her. I had no powers, but I was still on my two feet. "If you want to get to her, you gotta go through me!" The mage tilted his head. I guess he probably realized how stupid that sounded. There was no way some scrawny ass asian man could do jack to a towering juiced up bodybuilder of a mage. I looked at Junon, who was now tearing up. Junon looked at me. "Please... Mavus, run. I can't lose another friend, please..."

I cut her off. "Oh my God Junon! Snap out of it! I'm not going to leave you alone! I don't care if this dude is 6 1, 6 2, or 7 foot. I will protect you with my life, isn't that what soldiers do?" The tears stopped. The mage scoffed. "Okay, screw this, lights out kid." The mage punched me in the face, causing me to hit the ground. The mage then started to stomp on my head.

It felt like my brain was rattling on and off. I couldn't tell if my vision was turning black from being unconscious, or the dirt. It felt like my skull was being cracked open, and the pain, holy hell. It felt like someone was injecting me with every chili pepper in existence. Like the Scoville unit of my blood went up exponentially. I didn't want to see what I looked like, but judging from how I was barely able to move, I would say I looked pretty beat up. The mage went up to Junon.

"Hey," I croaked. The mage turned around. "I ain't... done with you... yet." The mage picked me up by the head. Well, I guess this is it.

Suddenly, the mage went slack. He dropped me like a sack of potatoes. Truman managed to regain consciousness and began to heal me. I watched as Junon put herself between the mage and I. "Stay the hell away from my squad you creep." Junon's face was both murderous and hot. The Mage laughed. "Wow, I'm so scared, you can't be serious lady. I guess I'll end you too." The Mage sent a punch her way, but Junon slid past. "Wait Junon! The uppercut to the chin thing won't work! His skin is too hard!" Junon rushed forward. "I'm not aiming for the chin." Junon suddenly went down, evading a swing. She then extended her hand, and impressed her finger on a spot. The Mage suddenly went slack. Suddenly, his whole body went numb. Junon walked up to the man, and began striking him in vital areas. Pressure points! The Mage went unconscious. Junon stood victorious.

Junon looked me in the eye. What a badass. I was going to say something along the lines of "Good Job" or "Welcome back", but the only thing that came out of my mouth was "uh, duh". Junon smirked. She helped me to my feet. "Thank you, Mavus. For reminding me that I have my own squad to look after. Now let's get you your stamina booster."

Chapter 8 - I Give the Worst Sales Pitch Ever

Junon brought Truman and I to the castle. The occasional mage or soul beast would appear, causing Truman and I to scream. Junon took them out. After what seemed like five minutes of screaming, we reached the armoury. Junon rifled through a bunch of stuff.

"This is so cool! I can't believe I'm in the Fortress Castle!" Truman was wetting himself. He turned to me. "How can you not appreciate the work that was put into such a piece of art?" I looked at the elf. "Yeah, I'm sure The New Militia is definitely going to appreciate the stone work of this place after they send it to rubble."

Junon interrupted us. "I have the vial!"

We returned to the outside and, well, the sight wasn't pretty to see. Junon gasped. "Oh my God..."

Almost half of our forces were either dead or defeated. Darkstar was pretty much done for. Jason suffered some major injuries, and was the only one standing out of the team. Blackflame looked completely unharmed.

"The age of New Croft is among us. What you are doing is merely delaying the inevitable." Blackflame looked at The Inquisition. We suffered some pretty heavy hits. The army was still outnumbering us pretty badly. Jason looked at Blackflame. "Stop this, Sam. I- I was in the wrong. I get that now. You can still come home." Blackflame glared at Jason, and suddenly a fiery shockwave sent him flying. "Jason!" Junon screamed. She turned to me. "You need to consume the vial. Do it! I'll distract Sam." I looked at her, incredulous. "You're crazy! You just saw what that dude did to Darkstar! You can't beat him!" Junon cut me off. "I'm not going to fight him, I'm going to try to talk to him." She ran off, leaving me with Truman.

I looked at Truman. "Let's do it." I grabbed the lid and twisted it. My hand slipped. I twisted it again. Well, this is embarrassing. "Junon!" I shouted. Junon turned around. "I... um, I can't open it." Junon gave me a look of disbelief.

"Seriously?"
"Yes, it's like, freaking bolted in. Do you have any pliers..."
Pop!

Junon opened the vial, handing it to me with the most exasperated look I had ever seen. "Oh I didn't know it was a pop-off type." Junon rolled her eyes, and went back to Blackflame's direction.

I chugged the bottle, and suddenly, it felt like my senses were dialled up to 11. I yelled, and smashed the vial to the ground. Truman stared at me. "Dude, was that really necessary?" I looked at him. "Of course it was! I'm pumped!" It was my time to shine.

Do you guys remember at the start how I said that I sent a few resources to the Fortress sky to use "for later"? Well as it turned out, I totally forgot about them until now. I summoned the huge pieces of metal from the sky, and a pod slammed on the ground right in front of me, opening up revealing a mech. I uploaded into it, repurposing it into Main.

I turned around, and more pods began to descend from the sky, arranging themselves into a hexagonal grid. I told Truman to evacuate whatever forces we had left. Then I turned around. The mages were all looking at me. Yeah, this is gonna be fun.

The pods began to transform, click clacking, the sound of metal and parts grinding and servos twisting. Merging, into a colossal mounted cannon brimming with energy, towering over the Fortress and the armies of The New Militia. The Armada Cannon readied itself, aiming its barrel at the New Militia army. The tech was a sight to behold; six massive barrels merging into one, complete with reflectors and rotators to provide an extra bit of kinetic rotational energy to the blasts. The Mages began to attack the cannon, so I held out Main's arms, which began to open its hidden compartments, revealing a vast array of micro munitions. I fired a barrage of missiles, sending them flying away. There were way too much mages for a single mech to hold off though, so I summoned more pods from the sky, about forty in number, revealing pre-made mech's each with their own weapons, missiles, repulsers, the works.

"Juno, engage!"
"Acknowledged."

The mechs began to fire, engaging the mages in a show of green lights and missiles. There were still thousands of mages I had to fend off, but the ones that had breached the security could be handled with the mechs I had summoned easily.

One guy tried to summon a bunch of stone bullets, but they all glanced off of the mech's armour. The mech equipped its minigun, bombarding the poor guy with a barrage of green energy bullets, sending him unconscious. Some of my mechs started to rescue the soldiers. They looked at the robots in surprise like they had never seen technology in their life.

The Armada Cannon continued powering up, as I flew upwards, accompanied with two of my mechs, delivering an aerial strike of missiles downwards on the mage army. The explosions sent a lot of the mages flying unconscious, but against an army of several thousand, we weren't doing much. Some of the mages noticed us and tried to send some spells our way, one fire ball glanced off of my drone's armor, sending it momentarily off course.

I noticed Junon was already at Blackflame's location. She was trying to reason with him.

"Sam, please. You don't have to do this."
"My mind has already been made up. Don't try to manipulate me, Junon."
"You were one of us at some point, you have to remember that."

There was no way I was going to leave her alone with this edge lord. I landed, slamming onto the ground, hero landing style. My two drones followed suit. Blackflame turned and glared at me. Tier Zero to Tier Zero.

"Well well well! Lookie what we have here! A reunion!"

Blackflame continued glaring at me. "How is this a reunion?"

I grinned, even though I was still uploaded into Main, which didn't really have a mouth. "Well, since we're both Tier Zero, I thought this would have been a reunion. And with Junon, since we uh, both know her. Sorta".

Blackflame looked confused. I didn't blame him. The speech I was preparing didn't really come out too well. It sounded so much cooler in my head.

"Well, I'm here to take Junon back with me. I suggest you also ditch that wack New Militia and rejoin Darkstar." Blackflame's face went back into a glare. "And why would I do that? Because some Kyle Star Titanium Man ripoff told me to?"

I was running out of things to say. The good news was that Blackflame was so engrossed with my stupid banter that he didn't notice that one of my units had sneaked off to the side and took Junon away.

"No... I mean what has the New Militia offered you?"
"It offered me a new life, a city to protect, families and chil-"
"Absolutely nothing!"
"What? I wasn't finish-"
"See? The New Militia offers you nothing! But here, we get everything a recruit would want. Free bed, free food, free schooling."
"New Croft offers all these things-"
"Take it from someone like me. I only joined because Junon was in here, and I thought maybe if I could get into Darkstar or a high ranking position in the Inquisition, I'd score a date."
"Enough!"

Blackflame growled, sending a massive red flame my way. Main suffered heavy damage, its armouring badly scathed and melted. Blackflame went up to me and grabbed me by my chest plate, melting it in his hands.

"You have some nerve to try to say these things to me. Who do you think I am?" Oh boy, Juno was freaking out, telling me that my internals were being overloaded by extreme temperatures. I had designed Main to withstand incredible temperatures as well as firepower, but this guy's flames were on another level. I noticed that the sides of my mech were starting to smoke, sizzling and sparking from the heat.

"So I take that as a no?" Blackflame glared at me. "This has gone long enough." I exited Main right before it exploded from the heat and uploaded into my other unit. "Yeah, I agree. Juno, fire the Armada Cannon." Blackflame turned around.

The Armada Cannon was already fully charged, with most of the invading troops already outgunned by my mechs that were guarding the gate. Its barrel was smoking and glowing green from all that energy. The Cannon fired, unleashing a massive beam of green destruction.

CHOOM

The sound was like a rocket taking off, causing everybody to plug their ears. Junon was screaming at me.

"Juno, what did Junon say?"
"Translation: What is wrong with you? Are you insane?"
"Thanks Juno."

The beam of the cannon swept through and completely eliminated the rest of the army in an arc. Thousands of soldiers engulfed by the massive beam, along with hundreds of forest trees and vegetation. It looked like I accidentally made the beam a tad too powerful, and forgot to consider the effects of wind pressure, because as soon as the cannon fired, wind pressure circulated it like a tornado, leading to a massive windstorm within the vicinity as well. Mages were either blasted unconscious from the path of the energy wave, or were lifted off their feet within its vicinity. When the beam finally dissipated, all that was left was a huge burning cylindrical crater on the ground with the entire army either unconscious or wetting themselves.

The remaining forces of The Inquisition recovered from the shockwaves of the Armada Cannon. Conlan glanced at the ten thousand defeated troops. He raised his sword high in the air. "VICTORY!" Everybody cheered. Conlan gave one of the mechs back in the Fortress a nod. I willed the mech to give a thumbs up.

Job well done!

Blackflame didn't have the same reaction, though, as his flames became sinister. Uh oh. I willed the dead Main's parts to clad onto my current mech, which expanded and gave it extra plating. I willed the mech holding Junon to transform into aerial mode, full speed. The mech's backplate expanded into two jet wings, and its chest plate relocated to its back, amplifying its thrusters. The mech's armour becoming more streamlined. I sent it and Junon away as fast as possible from Blackflame.

I turned to Blackflame, his face now full of murderous intent. "You've made a poor decision today, Mavus." Sam looked me in the eye, and his face began to smoke, his skin turning darker and darker. I could hear Junon's voice, speaking to the aerial mech. "Mavus! You need to run! Don't fight him, he's turning into Form 4! Do NOT engage! Mavus, do you hear me?"

Blackflame yelled, and I was sent flying several yards. I slowed down the fall by activating my thrusters. This dude's gone ballistic. I held out my forearm, which transformed. I shot out several pods, which each expanded with energy wires, a mini tractor beam to pin him down, but the moment they reached his vicinity, all the pods disintegrated. Blackflame glared at me. His skin now pitch black, his eye reduced to only a sinister looking red light trailing with red fire.

"Okay Mavus, I'll entertain you. Let's settle this. Tier Zero against Tier Zero."

Chapter 9 - Hippity Hoppity My Life is Now Blackflame's Property

The fight ended before it even started. And no, I didn't win. Blackflame shot forward with impossible speed. I couldn't even react to it, even with Main's sensors being calibrated to react to subsonic levels of events. This dude was far beyond that, he was supersonic. I looked down in shock, and saw that his punch went right through Main's hull. If I was really a Kyle Star ripoff, he would have turned me into the first Titanium Man shish kebab.

Screw this! I instantly summoned anything that came to mind, the smallest scout drone I could think and uploaded my body into that. Blackflame opened his fist, and Main blew up in a huge red fire. The shockwave sent me flying in my little drone form. I sent ten pods from the sky, transforming them into mech units, which all unveiled their miniguns, rocket launchers, lasers, and everything. I then ordered the Armada Cannon to charge its beam again, aiming it straight at Blackflame, and the remaining operational mech sentries at the Fortress to group up with the ten that were already in position.

"Juno, fire all weapons!"

The mechs fired everything they had, every single weapon in their arsenal going straight to Blackflame. The Armada Cannon fired a huge beam of green energy, causing another torrent of wind pressure to circulate around the beam. Blackflame turned around and took the blast head on. Lol, what an idiot.

The smoke cleared, and Blackflame was... unscathed? No. He definitely took damage, but it was as if he had regenerated almost instantly. Blackflame looked me straight in the eye. Not my mechs, me. He singled me out. His eye had changed, a huge white iris in a black eyeball. Around his arm was black armour, like a samurai's. This dude looked like a demon.

"Hiding behind your metal toys? It doesn't matter where you hide. I can see you. Nothing escapes my vision."

To prove that, Blackflame backhanded a rocket that I was preparing behind him from one of my mechs. The rocket flew back and shot the mech down in a massive green explosion. Blackflame continued.

"Your firepower is impressive, the implications of such destructiveness are planetary, which was why Ariandal sent Toren to recruit you. Despite his offer, you turned him down. And for that..."

Blackflame suddenly appeared in front of me with that same astonishing speed. I realized that my mechs were all taken out in the blink of an eye. Each mech was sliced into bits. Blackflame grabbed my little drone body and began to squeeze. I felt like I was going to explode. I quickly uploaded myself into another scout drone, but Blackflame used the carcass to smash me into the ground, where I exited my drone into my human form. Blackflame shot downwards, then grabbed me by my throat.

I began to choke. This guy's grip was like iron, and his claws felt demonic. I could feel his Darkfire. It felt scary, vengeful. You know, the fun stuff. Blackflame exited Form 4, his silver eye regarding me.

"Behind your robots, you are just a man. You are nothing to me."

Blackflame began to squeeze. I tried to upload into something, anything, but the pain was too much for me to even concentrate. Suddenly, a dagger flew out of nowhere. Blackflame dodged it. Jason managed to get up, he was so bloodied that it was pretty hard to look at.

"Put him down, Sam."

Blackflame threw me onto the ground. I retched and tried to capture my breath. I almost died to this guy. How strong was he? I guess fighting him with my real body uploaded into these machines was a bad idea. I was way too overconfident. You couldn't blame me. I've never fought a Tier Zero before, it was always Tier 4's and below. With the exception of Sharon, who was Tier 1, but it was mostly because she gave me freaking macaroni for my month's food supply. You have to admit that she had it coming.

Blackflame regarded Jason. Suddenly, the sky turned bright. A golden celestial glow. Suddenly, all of the fallen enemies glowed gold, and were pulled into a portal. Blackflame stopped. "Ariandal calls for me. We will meet again when the time is right." Blackflame glared at me. "You have costed me a battalion, but that is okay. When the time is right, I will take more from you than this brigade." Blackflame was carried into the portal too, with Jason looking at him. Jason fell to one knee, and I held him.

"Thank you Mavus, for saving these people."

I collapsed. Looked like the vial's effects were running out. I looked back and watched as all my mechs were started to disassemble, their pieces falling to the ground and disintegrating. Junon's eyes wide as she screamed my name, running to me, as my vision turned darker and darker.

I woke up. Junon, Khione, Veran, and Truman were looking down at me. Junon had her arms crossed. "Had a nice sleep?" I rubbed my eyes. "Yeah, I feel like a thousand bucks." Junon looked like she was itching to punch me in the face. I guess she thought I was going to die or something. I had to say something. "Sorry." Junon raised an eyebrow. "What for?" I sat up. "I'm sorry I made you worry. I usually fall asleep when I overexert myself, sorry if it looked like something else." Veran chuckled. "There is no need to apologize, you did your part and drove the enemy away! You are a warrior worthy of a million tales!" Khione laughed. "I expected nothing less from you, Mavus, but too bad the Inquisition doesn't think the same way." My eyes widened. "What? Seriously? How could they not notice the freaking 40 mech sentries who were helping them out?" Khione looked at me. "They did, well the ones who still were conscious. There weren't a lot. Most of the people thought it was Conlan and Varen who had drove them back." Veran laughed a hearty laugh, causing me to jump. "They sure did! I've been getting compliments left and right! I've tried telling them it was you Mavus, but they didn't believe me! But it's okay, we all knew it was you all along!"

I got up from my bed. Junon laughed. "Well, I guess you guys have today off too, we need extra hands with repairs today." I looked at the squad. "Hey wait, where did Truman go?" It turned out Truman had booked it after seeing me awake. He prioritized breakfast over me. Eggs over bros. This guy. Khione and Veran waved at me. "We will be at the infirmary to help the wounded, if you want to join us!" I nodded.

The squad left, leaving just me with Junon. Together. Alone in a room. I started to sweat a storm. Junon looked at me like I was the most interesting specimen in the world. "So you fought Blackflame, even when I said he was too dangerous. How did that go?" I looked down and sat on the bed again. "Not so well. I got overconfident and nearly died. Jason ended up saving me." Junon cracked a smile. "Yeah, he always saved me too when I was in danger." I felt a twinge of jealousy. "Blackflame's powers... they felt, scary." Junon sat next to me. "I know." I looked at her. "I knew a ton of metahumans in the past. You remember Vera?" Junon smirked. "You mean Ms. Skyscraper?" I laughed. "Yeah, when Vera used her powers, of course it was like, wow, she's going to level the whole place! But it was always like any other metahuman power. Dangerous, fun, interesting." I continued. "But with Sam's powers, it gave me all sorts of bad vibes. I felt scared, angry, vengeful, like...like-" Junon looked at me with concern. "Like you lost everything in the world and the only way to cope with it was to destroy everything." I stared at her. "How did you know?" Junon's face became full of sorrow.

"Because that was what Sam felt when he left Darkstar."

Chapter 10 - The Squad Ruins My Date

"Okay, the answer should be 56 Megapascal." I checked the solutions. 155 MPa. I banged my head on the table. How was this so difficult to wrap by head around? This problem was literally the exact same as the example. Thus far, I hadn't gotten a single problem correct. I was following the exact same steps too. Good old Solid Mechanics. Ruining my day since Year 1755.

You guys are probably wondering why I'm doing this to myself. College was down, so no need to study or worry about exams. So why bother trying to cram an entire semester's worth of work into my brain? Well the thing was, I kind of had to. When the Automatons invaded, I was still in my third year of undergrad. That meant my entire degree was cut off early. In other words, my entire savings, spent on tuition, went out the window. I already spent three years in college, saving up for funds by working in fast food restaurants everywhere (with strict government supervision). There was no way I would let it go to waste.

"22 metres". I checked the solutions. 12 N/m. I banged my head on the table again. I read the question wrong. I was starting to consider giving up. Maybe those years taking peoples orders wasn't so worth it after all.

"Wow, I didn't think I would see Solid Mech again after everything that's happened." Junon walked up from behind me. She tied up her hair in a ponytail, making her go from a 10 to a... well whatever was higher than a 10. I turned around. Junon smiled.

"Why are you studying, of all things? It's the weekend! Go outside! Everybody is having fun and going out. You shouldn't have to bury your face in books."

I looked at her. "I'm just catching up on some stuff. It's no big deal." Junon glanced at the stack of papers full of crossed out equations. "No big deal huh?" She stepped closer to see what I was working on. She smelled like orchids. As usual, my body began perspiring.

"Torsion? Didn't we learn this stuff before?" I crumpled another piece of paper and threw it across the room. "Yeah, I just wasn't paying attention in class, now it's really come back to bite me in the back." Junon watched as I scribbled down some equations for another problem. I checked the solution, wrong again.

I leaned back on the chair. "This stuff is impossible! How did I even get this wrong! I followed example!" Junon narrowed her eyes. "You do realize that the formula calculates relative strains right?" I stared at her. "What?" Junon smirked.

"When you twist the gear, the torque gets transferred to the other gear multiplied by the gear ratio right?"
"Yeah."
"The torque gives a twist."
"Yeah."
"But that twist is only with respect to the gear."
"Wait what?"

Junon laughed. She pointed at the diagram that I was referring to. "That formula only works because the other end of the shaft is fixed, while the rod is being twisted." I looked at where she was pointing. Dammit. She was right.

Junon continued. "Look at the shaft in this problem. It's not fixed at the end. The twist is happening with respect to the gear, but the gear itself is also twisting too. You need to sum the deformations."

I fixed up the formula and tried again. Bingo bango bongo. The answer was right. I stared at her, completely dumbfounded. Junon smiled. "Your welcome." Ever since the Automatons attacked and the world was sent into chaos, I had been even more secluded than ever. Now that I was with Junon again, I had forgotten how smart she was. Smart and beautiful. Or maybe I was just really really stupid.

Junon probably saw me pouting. "It's okay Mavus! Everybody learns at different speeds. Don't be so hard on yourself! You probably don't need to know any of this stuff anyway, considering the machines you make always just work."

Ugh, everybody always told me that. Wow, why are you studying engineering, you basically can build anything you want just by imagining it. You're the ultimate engineer! You don't need a degree when everything just works.

Well first off, engineering isn't just hitting things with a wrench, and putting random stuff together like a tinkerer, contrary to popular belief. Yes, there are some fields of engineering where you may be expected to do something like that, but the whole crux of engineering, well in my particular field, is the design and maintenance of these machines. It's a lot more than just putting random parts together hoping it would work like you see in Titanium Man, we're responsible for all the numbers and calculations that govern these things. Reality check baby. A lot of my friends went into engineering thinking they would be building things with gears and stuff. Boy the looks on their faces were priceless when they realized that most of the design work was done on CAD. LOL!

Secondly, I went into engineering to figure these things out myself. Yeah, you can call me a keener for wanting to figure out the how rather than the end result. It just fascinates me. There's a difference in satisfaction knowing that a thing you made with your bare hands works, rather than having your powers, or a friend, or a coworker do it for you.

I closed the PDF. "You're right, I don't. But it's something I want to get, you know?" Junon sat on my bed. "I respect that. But it is the weekend. You should consider going out, balance is just as important." I closed my laptop and put it away. I looked at Junon, who was leaning back on the bed, her feet rocking back and forth. Going out huh. Maybe...

"Uh, sure, I guess I'll go out then. I don't really know where to go though, want to um. Err..." My mouth went dry. Oh come on! Why was I stuttering like an idiot! Go out with me. That's all I needed to say. Come on man. You're Mavus Freaking Shaw. Tier 0, one man army. Let's go! Let's gooooooo.

"Do you want to out with the go?" Screw me.
"I'm sorry?"
"Out. With me. Like go out." I responded. I quickly followed up. "Like you know, because I've never been out before because of the whole isolation thing. You know how it is."

Junon laughed. "Are you asking me out, Mavus?"

My heart clenched. "Yyyyyy- yes?"

Junon got up. "Sure! We can go after lunch."

Oh. My. God. Your boy just secured a date with Junon Gareth. Things couldn't have gone any better.

Things got a whole lot worse. "You two are going out? Can I come?" Truman exclaimed. Junon smiled. "Sure! I know a lot of places here in Corinth, we could check out the Imperium, it's a great place for many people to visit, with their own stores and places to check out. I'm sure we'll have a blast." Truman put his arm around my shoulders. "This is awesome! I get to hang out with two of my bestest buddies in the whole Inquisition!" Junon looked at Veran and Khione. "Are you two busy? Want to come along?" Veran got up, then put his fist to his chest like an oath. "I shall kindly accept your offer. We will make today's journey a memorable one! Worthy of many tales!" Khione remained seated. "We can make it."

And like that, my plans to spend the evening with Junon were ruined by the squad.