A Flying Car (Genie)

[Leon Orcot]

Normally the sounds from the forges are the pounding of metal and the sounds of weapons being tested. However, that is not the case today. Today the forge was ringing with the sweet sounds of classic rock. Stepping around the back of the forges, one would see what appeared to be a garage for cars. This is a correct guess, there were four slide up shutters, one of which was open for the world to see. Inside, there is a burnt orange 1969 Chevy Camaro, underneath which, one Leon Orcot could be found. The car was currently lifted up off the ground a slight bit so the mechanic could have easier access. Both of the car windows were open, revealing the source of the music to be the car itself.

In the underbelly of the car, Leon was making the final adjustments to the newest attachments on his baby. Sliding out from under the car, he lowered it down off the lift. Climbing into the driver's seat, he started up the car. He pulled it just outside the garage before he placed his thumb on the side of the 8-ball gear shift head. Flipping it up, revealed an orange button with the letter "F" on it. He gave a smirk as he rested his thumb on the button."Here we go baby girl, let's make this work." He gently pressed down on the button, and from underneath the car, a pair of wings sprang out. His steering wheel moved and melded until it was a flight stick right in front of him. Looking out at the wings, he mumbled to himself,"Alright, testing for flap and aileron function. Looks good, all that's left is to finish up the repulsor jets, install them, and we'll be good to do a test flight." As he talked, he moved the stick and watched both wings respond as they were supposed to. Flipping a switch on the dash revealed the flaps to deploy properly.

Nodding to himself he popped the gear shift back open and pushed the orange button again. Seeing the wings fold back under the car, he backed the car back up onto the lift inside the garage. Shutting the car back off, but leaving the stereo going, he walked over to a table where he had various parts, tools, and papers strewn about. Chuckling lightly to himself, he thanked the marvel universe for showing him how to make these glorious devices. He started tinkering away, slowly working on one after another.

[Virginia Grace]

Genie was in high spirits as she made her way to the forge this morning. While it was certainly not uncommon for the girl to be smiling on her way to work today her smile was perhaps a little wider and her step a little more peppy. There was good reason for all this of course. Not only was she coming off a date that had gone extremely well but today was the day that she was finally going to finish her strawberry picker machine and that was a pretty big reason to celebrate as well.

A new machine always got Genie excited. The excitement of finishing a project that you had been working on for a long time, the joy of bringing "life" to what had only been inanimate metal weeks or months before, these were all emotions that ran through her mind every time one of her projects neared completion. It really was why she loved her work and she fully expected to feel that soaring sense of accomplishment as she walked into the forge today but she never quite made it that far.

If there was one thing that could have distracted Genie from her work it was the familiar sounds of classic rock coming from the garage area. When she was younger Genie's mom had always listened to classic rock while she worked in the garage and the girl had many fond memories of helping her mom change the oil on someone's VW Vanagon or the tires on someone's old pickup truck. It was a way of life for her growing up and she couldn't help but be curious enough to poke her head around the corner to see what was happening.

What she saw when she peaked around made her eyes go wide with delight. Almost as if it had jumped out of one of those memories she saw one of her brothers working on and a beautiful 69 Camaro and suddenly all thoughts of projects went out the window. Genie's eyes grew as wide as saucers as she watched the wings expand. It was amazing and Genie knew right then that whatever this beautiful lady was intended for that she needed to be a part of it.

Watching as the wings were folded back up and the car was pulled back into the garage Genie decided to step around the corner to go investigate. By the time she made it into the garage Leon was already hard at work on some other components and Genie took a moment to examine the beauty before her letting her hands run over the smooth, hard angles of the classic muscle car enjoying the feel of the strong American steel under her fingers. Finally, reluctantly she tore her eyes away from the pretty little Chevy and looked over at her brother. “She purrs like a cat that just got the cream. Do ya have the Z/28 in there or were you able to get one of those amazing ZL-1's? Either way it looks like you'll have to reroute the power through a secondary generator if you're going to get enough lift to get her off the ground. Could do some simple modifications though..."

[Leon Orcot]

Leon didn't even flinch at the sound of the foot steps behind him. What made him pause for a moment was the feeling of a hand on his baby. He took a glance over his shoulder, and one eyebrow raised on his scarred face. He scanned over the face of his sister, as he could tell she was one, and he came to a realization. He knew this young woman, but she was different from when he saw her. He listened to her talk as she looked over his baby. It took him a second before he could respond, as he was still trying to place her name, and where he knew her from. "It's the ZL-1. I've had her ever since I was a kid." He processed her other sentences in a matter of seconds before smirking and turning back to his work."I'm not worried about the power, that's already covered. My name is Leon, Leon Orcot. And yours is Virginia Grace, isn't it? I recognize your face from a picture your stepfather showed me."

Finishing his work for the moment, he turned to face her. Looking her up and down he crossed his arms over his scarred form. He had gone light today, opting for a dark grey tank top and some black cargo pants. He still had his tan, and his gambler's smirk. Walking over to her, he reached past her and popped open the hood and trunk of his car. Going around to the hood and propping it open, he showed off his rather impressive engine set up to the other child of the forges, knowing she could appreciate what he had put into his baby. He gave her a wink before he walked around to the back of the car and opened up the trunk. He had his LMG strapped into the top of the trunk lid, and he quickly unstrapped it and leaned it gently against the side of the car so he could keep the trunk open. Sliding off the panel that would normally cover a spare tire, he instead revealed a much larger version of the arc reactor from the Iron Man armor. He had it cables running off of it into the interior of the car, most of which connected to various points where there were holes in his baby. It had hurt him greatly to have to do this, but the modifications were for the best, as he couldn't drive everywhere, but flying was possible.

"As you can see here, I have it all ready, I just need to finish up my repulsor jets and I will be all good to go. Besides, this baby can take off just on the power of the wheels alone, I just need to keep her up with the jets." He gently patted the arc reactor as he spoke. Gods above did he love the Marvel Universe. They gave him so many projects to work on. He turned back to face the young woman who had walked into his, as he was the only person at camp with a car, garage. He also worked on the camp van, but he hadn't done anything spectacular to it just yet. That was a project for a later date, if he could get the old horse to agree to what he wanted."You want to help a brother out with some jets? I'm almost done, I just need to finish building the last 4."

[Virginia Grace]

It was nice to be able to talk to someone who actually spoke car for once. Genie would often start spewing out simple explanations of how some things worked and people would just look at her like she had suddenly grown a second head. She didn't really understand how something so simple could trip people up with thoughts of asexual reproduction but it was kind of embarrassing to realize you were the only one in the room who knew what you were talking about. In Leon's case this was a pleasant change from the norm for her.

"Yep. That's me." Genie said cheerfully as her mind returned to fantasizing about the legendary engine. The Z/28 was all well and good in its own right but there was something special about the ZL-1. It was enough to make a girl weak in the knees or at least it was for Genie who could think of nothing better than really letting this beauty tear loose on the open road which was where she was meant to be. "You can call me Genie though. Everybody does." She chuckled a little. “Well everybody except for my step dad.”

Apparently Leon knew a little more about her than she did about him but that was okay. Genie couldn’t really concentrate on her strained relationship with her step father when there was a beautiful classic car in the room. Besides, Leon apparently had a few more tricks up his sleeve and that was far more interesting. She would ask him about it later but right now she let herself be led around to the back of the car admiring it all the way and watched as the boy opened the trunk to reveal the pretty little Camaro’s big secret.

"Ain't that shiny..." She said in obvious awe as she saw the reactor pulsing with silent blue light. It was indeed pretty shiny but more than that Genie meant it was pretty awesome too. The words kind of meant the same thing when Genie got excited. "Must have took some doing to contain all that energy. I wonder what all that could be used for..." Ideas were already starting to fly through Genie's head like tiny little shooting stars. It wasn't the time to reach up and grab any of them now but she would definitely save a few for later.

“Well I’ve got to admit you’ve definitely got her souped-up. With that power I’m betting you’ll have no problem keeping her airborne. You could probably even add in a few extra systems just for fun.” Genie chuckled and nodded her agreement. Her mind could run all day just on the possibilities but to actually get to help? Yeah that sounded pretty awesome. “You really know how to sweet talk a girl don’t cha? I would love to help you out. You just tell me where you need me and I’ll put a little bit of the old Genie Grace magic to work. With both of us working on her why I bet we’ll have this girl flying in no time.”

[Leon Orcot]

Leon nodded his head and made a mental note of her nickname, "Okay, Genie. That I can do." He gave a smirk as she looked at his reactor, shiny indeed. He gave a nod at her statements, it had been a bit of a hassle to contain the energy, but once he got the energy flowing in the circular pattern he had made, it got easier to contain, as it would all flow around in a circle until it was needed. He gave a smile, he had plenty of extra systems in mind, and he was going to wind up implementing them all. This was his baby, and she was going to be ready to take on all kinds of adventures. His, James Bond car, if you will. "Oh you know, this and that. The energy is going to be used to power most of the alternate systems I'm working on, in addition to my repulsors. When I'm done with her, this baby will be the ultimate quest vehicle."

He gave a laugh as she said he knew how to sweet talk a girl. Yes he did, but he couldn't be doing that to his sister. The gods might think it's okay, but he was a human, and to their society it really wasn't. Well, it would still be nice to have some company while he was working on his car. He gently pushed some design papers further down the bench. "Here are the designs for what I'm currently working on. The mechanisms aren't that complex for the likes of us, but I don't think most normal people will get it. But you have your Genie Grace magic." He nudges a few more pages over, "These are some of what I'm thinking of adding, but I'm still working on getting the kinks worked out. Some Greek Fire missiles, pop out from behind the headlights machine guns, and I'm still working on a rear defense. I'm currently building the last four repulsor jets, I have eight total and I have the places for them already cut out of my baby, I just haven't pulled the metal off yet. It was hard hurting my baby like that." He wiped a few fake tears out of his eyes before he chuckled a bit. He turned back to his parts, sliding two full sets down to his sister from another mother.

He was really glad his sister had come inside the shop today. She seemed like a cool person, and his captain had asked him if he saw her to watch over her a bit. He had said they didn't have the best relationship, but he loved her mother and wanted her to be happy, which meant keeping Genie here safe. He turned back to his baby before he covered the reactor in the trunk back up. Instead of strapping his LMG back into the trunk, he brought it over to the workbench and set it down. He gave it a pat and showed it off to his sister. "This is what I'm planning on trying to get behind the headlights. This is my other baby, she got me out of several scrapes back in Iraq."

[Virginia Grace]

Genie listened intently to everything her brother had to say. He certainly sounded excited about his car but that was fairly normal in her mind. It was the people who didn't get excited about and love their cars that she wondered about sometimes. To her, Leon calling his car baby wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. In fact, she had used quite a few amorous names for her own many projects before and she wasn't planning to change those old habits any time soon no matter what people said about how close she was with her machines.

"That's good. I'd hate all that extra power to go to waste. Why I bet you could fit it with all kinds of tools gadgets and weapons that would definitely help you out of you're going on a quest." Genie didn't know how many quests Leon planned on going on but a flying car could have a lot of uses some of which were more for fun. "Maybe I've just been watching too many Inspector Gadget reruns or something but there's so much that you could do with this girl. She's already pretty awesome but it sounds like you've got some great things planned too."

Genie had really been kidding about the whole sweet talk thing. There was no keeping it in the family for her. She already had someone she was interested in and besides the barn door didn't quite swing in Leon's favor even if things had been different. Still, Genie wasn't lying when she said she was excited to help out. There was something about working on old cars that just got her on a high like few other things she knew. That being the case when Leon brought her back to his workbench and pushed the plans over to her she snatched them up eagerly to look them over.

The designs he had made didn't look like they would be such a much at all. As she read over the plans a smile broke out on her face and she nodded along as she made sense of everything. "Yeah we can definitely make this work and it looks like you've already done a lot of the ground work. I know you won't like pulling her apart but I think she'll forgive you once we have these upgrades installed. She'll definitely be the shiniest Camaro on the road and I bet she's really going to move in the sky too. Plus if it makes you feel any better I'll stay away from the install points until the last minute just so we can keep her intact just as long as possible."

Genie set down at the worktable as her hands began to pour over the parts and pieces that had been laid out to work on. She only glanced up when Leon came back over carrying his LMG and set it down on the table. "It certainly is big." She said with a chuckle. Genie wasn't too big on guns, probably another reason why she and her step father couldn't seem to get along, but she could deal with them as long as she wasn't the one firing them. Sometimes they were a necessary evil especially for soldiers. "So you were in Iraq? I bet you have some interesting stories. Don't worry though we'll make sure we make room for all your babies. Even the ones that make big booms"

[Leon Orcot]

Leon gave a nod to what his sister was saying, but to be honest, all he had been thinking of was weapons. Perhaps he should also be thinking of tools. He nodded his head for a second on his own, lost, trying to come up with ideas for other various systems for his baby. A few popped up pretty quick, like a HUD for his windshield, maybe an AI in the car itself. Probably get one of the girls around camp to get a voice for it. That would work, but what else? "Well, I just had some more ideas pop up. One thing for sure that would be useful would be a HUD, and probably an AI system to go with it. Do you have any ideas for tools and such? I've been mostly thinking on offence. And, go go gadget." He gave a smirk, but then had another brilliant idea, cup holders that can adjust to the perfect temperature, depending on what drink the user put inside them. It was genius. An expanded trunk would be good as well, hold more things in general. He nodded his head to himself.

He gave a small fake sob at having to cut up his baby even more. He let a small smile slip though and thanked his sister for being considerate. He didn't want to have to cop up his baby, but he knew it would be needed. He will make sure he shines her up right, he can't have his baby sad and lacking in beauty. She and him represented each other, and he would make sure he looked damn good for his baby, and keep her looking perfect. "Well dear sister of mine, I say we get this project underway. I know between our two genius minds we can get this baby packed full of fun goodies that our enemies will just love. He faltered for a moment when she mentioned stories. It was true, he had lots of good stories. He had joined up with several of his friends, and while serving in Iraq, he had seen several more across all the branches of the military. He thought of those he lost, and what he lost and his eyes watered a little. "I do have stories, most good, but several, bad. I gained much over in that war, but I lost much more, including parts of myself. Both literal and figurative." He rubbed his hands over his scarred body for a moment, showing what he had endured. "If you ever want to hear my tale, come find me in our cabin. I will gladly tell it to you, if you aren't squeamish or anything. It's not a tale for the faint of heart." Shaking his head of the negative thought pattern he was going through he gave her a smile, if a little forced. He turned back to his work and started to tinker on it, thinking of visiting his friends once his baby was at least flyable.

[Virginia Grace]

“Me?” Genie asked in surprise. She had been happy to hear about all the cool projects and expansions that Leon had in store for the car but she hadn’t expected him to actually ask her for her opinion. Most mechanics liked to keep their car projects all to themselves after all. It was a sentiment that she could certainly understand so it was a little surprising when Leon looked to her for some possible improvements. That wasn’t to say Genie wasn’t up to the task but she didn’t want to overstep her bounds.

“Well if you insist I could totally think of some spiffy designs that would help you out.” Genie drummed her fingers on the table in thought as Leon told her about the HUD and the AI systems he was thinking about. Those were good but if he really wanted to make his car stand out there were a few more things that she hadn’t heard him mention yet. “Well if you’re going to be doing any type of flying outside of camp you’ll need to make sure you have some kind of stealth or cloaking system. Don’t want anybody seeing a flying muscle car zooming around after all or there would be questions. Also, what about reinforcing the cabin with some armor and bullet proof glass? Never know what kind of monsters you’ll run into up there and it’s good to be prepared.”

Genie smiled. This was a fun project and her mind was already lighting up with some more possibilities. “If you wanted you could super charge the thrusters so that you could go for some max burn and top speed when you needed it. That would help to get away from those tricky wind spirits and it would be worth thinking about some all-terrain landing gear as well in case you had to land some place you didn’t expect like the North Pole.” She giggled at that thought and picked up a piece of the thruster assembly to start working on it. “Bet Santa Claus would be real jealous if you stopped by his place with this beauty.”

It was easy to get carried away or lost in what she was doing. Sometimes hours would pass with Genie working on a new project in the forge and she would end up working late into the night without even realizing it. In fact, that was one of the reasons that the girl had claimed a corner of the forge as her own personal little home away from home just for those late nights when she didn’t want to come back to the cabin. She had even strung up a hammock and painted the wall with her name in cute bubbly letters and pastel flowers. It was just kind of her thing.

Fortunately for both of them Leon jumped in before she could get too far and started talking about his time in the war and some of the things he had lost. Genie didn’t like the way that those thoughts seemed to darken her brother’s mood. Wars weren’t right but that didn’t really help the situation now. Now all that was left was just to try and do right by the people who had fought in them and hope you could make things a little better. That being the case Genie turned on a little of her trademark charm hoping that she could push away a little of the darkness with her bright smile and warm attitude.

“Yeah I suppose that would be hard for you but those scars and stories are a part of who you are. We all have stories but that make us who we are and I for one wouldn’t want to have my siblings any other way.” Genie didn’t look much on peoples’ physical appearance. All in all it wasn’t really what was important. What was important is that her brother had survived all that and he was here with her now and Genie didn’t really want to waste that. “I would really like to listen to your story sometime. I’m not squeamish and I’d like to learn more about you if that’s something you think you might want to do.”

[Leon Orcot]

Glancing up at Genie from his tinkering, Leon listened to what she was saying. He nodded his head, she had some good ideas. A cloaking device for the car would be pretty smart, unless he wanted to get busted pretty quick. "Cloaking, hadn't thought of that one. I was just gonna go flying around, like it was a normal, everyday thing. The glass however, is already bulletproof. It can actually take an RPG dead on and not even scratch. Armoring up the car would also be a pretty sweet idea. I did just figure up a new lightweight alloy that might work for this, I'll do some testing on it later." Leon gave her a smile, he could tell she was getting more enthused with this project as she kept talking. That was good, it wouldn't do to try and get someone who wasn't excited about this to help him out.

Little did his baby sister know, he already had a max burn thruster set built up and ready to install. He gave her a sly wink, nodding his head to a pair that he had already finished up. "See those two right there? That's the afterburner set, I got those babies fine tuned to burn up atmo. She'll go fast once those two are running up. That much, I can promise you. They are gonna be the key here for any escapes that may be needed." As he said this, he reached over and wrapped an arm around Genie's shoulder, while gesturing with his other hand in a wide sweeping pattern in front of him. His eyes twinkling with excitement at his vision for his baby. Giving her a pat on the shoulder, he turned back to the last thruster he had left in front of him.

He started thinking again, she had made a good point on the landing gear. Right now, he could land, but he needed it to be on the ground, and best case would be on a road. On the bright side, it was a VTOL, so he could land just about anywhere, provided it didn't give out under the car when he finished the landing. It wasn't even a hard thing to fix really, amphibious landings would be easy, as the car was already sealed up tight for flying. He continued to muse quietly to himself as he absentmindedly finished up the thruster in front of him.

He let out a low sigh at his sister, he knew she was right about his stories. They were a part of him, as much as he was a part of them. He didn't mind telling her, it was just whether or not she was ready for them. He wasn't so sure, but it would be fine, he mused to himself. She was a big girl, if she can't take it she can ask to stop. He would start light though, just to keep it easy. Something funny first, then they could get to the nitty-gritty stuff later. "Alright kiddo, I'll give you the rundown. Hades, you might even get to meet some of the fellas in the stories I'll tell you. That's gonna be stop number one when I get this mean machine all ready." He was really excited about that, he hasn't seen his boys in a while. It was about time to give them a call and get caught up on what was going down. "Well Genie, what do ya say? You ready to get this gorgeous beast flight worthy? Take a small test flight around the camp?"