ten_fwd | Kid plot - OTA - Aggie on break

Kid plot - OTA - Aggie on break

Agatha had been trying to help out in the sick bay, trying to find a cure, but apparently they decided she had been working too hard. Or maybe Trance had been close to knocking her out again and they had noticed that. She wasn't sure. All she knew was that her break was not optional.

But... they never told her she had to sleep. Just that she had to leave the Sick Bay for a while. She didn't feel like going to the lounge though, so...

She found herself a seemingly empty corridor and started to work on something. It was challenging, since there was no replicator there, so she had to rely on her dingbots to bring her parts... but... the challenge was part of what made it fun!

So little Aggie was sitting splay legged in a hallway, building a miniature death ray, something small enough for little kid her to use.

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...well, this was slightly alarming. Billy had managed to avoid the latest infection by keeping himself busy with his studies. So far, so good. But he definitely had to be far more careful about what he carried these days---with litle hands around every corner, he couldn't let his tools wander.

As he rounded another corner on his way to the library, Billy spotted a small girl who looked faintly familiar.

"...that's a water gun, right?" He hoped? Surely she wouldn't already have control of something dangerous.

She beamed a bright smile at him. "OH! A WATER DEATH RAY! THAT'S EVEN BETTER!" she declared, clapping her hands before starting to rip out components to rework the whole design.

"I'm going to need a heating element, but we can use aspects of what we were discussing with the magnification of body heat. We'll just have to further amplify that so that the water can be scalding hot at an instant. We'll also need to completely change the casing design so that it does not melt at that heat, and to perfect the aiming functionality of the nozzle. I'll need some brass piping," she said, ordering him about like he was a dingbot. Like Aggie so often does when she's in the madness place.

"I probably should use fiberglass for the outer casing, maybe?" She tapped a dirty spanner against her lips as she considered that.

Billy was just about in panic mode. All right...so she still had her memories of him, but why did everything he said give her another dangerous idea?

"Yes, maybe, but...now might not be the best time to carry that around," he rubbed his temple. "The ship's in chaos, anything amiss will likely be treated harshly."

"The ship's in chaos," she agreed, "which means people might try and do stupid things, or hurt people who can no longer defend themselves. So until we finish finding a cure, we need to help!"

"And we need a death ray to stop any threats of violence?" Billy questioned. "I was always taught not to escalate further than absolutely necessary."

"Clearly we were taught differently. Want to help?"

"I don't think I should," Billy shook his head. "I don't want to be responsible for any casualties."

He really was a nervous guy, it seemed.

"Oh come on. It'll be fine!"

"Well...all right. You're going to do it whether I participate or not, so I suppose I should be responsible about it."

And that means being an accessory to this mess. Of course.

she beamed and bounced to her feet, hugging him, her face pressed into his knees, then grabbed his hand and pulled him down to sit in the hall with her. "We have lots to do!"

"We sure do," he agreed, absent-mindedly patting her. Someone had failed to inform him to keep the infected at arms' length...

But here he sat, obediently building these aquatic death rays. "So...when do we anticipate we'll be using them?"

She pursed her lips and looked at him, as if not understanding who he was. "Hopefully never," she said simply, as if that was obvious.

"Right. We're building solely for our own amusement," Billy repeated, though he still seemed slightly uncertain. "And to learn. Right? Now...material. We need to replicate material."

She rolled her eyes. "We're building them to defend the people we care about." Her expression said "Duh" so well that she didn't have to vocalize it. "So We build them, we keep them, and we hope to never need them."

She gave him an odd look. "You've never had to defend people before?"

Billy's laugh pitched up, an odd and rather feminine sound. She was hitting a little too close to home there. "...me? Well. I have. In a certain way. But never quite like this---I don't tend toward violence first."

He hoped to avoid it if at all possible, especially after what had happened the last time he fought while a crew member.

"But you're right, I should have stronger tools. We all should." And there he began working again.

"Like how?" she asked as she passed him tools.

"Making stronger tools? Or...fighting?"

Come on, Aggie. He's trying to put the violence behind him.

"The fighting. How did you used to defend?"

"Ah...martial arts. Karate. With some gymnastics classes on the side for flexibility. It's pretty basic...except when I'm building a weapon."

Like he is now. Because some things never change.

"I have someone trying to teach me all that stuff." she rubbed the back of her head, getting oil and grease in her hair. She shrugged. "She'll probably be upset I've stopped training since I got here..."

"But weapons are easier."

"Certainly less scary to use," Billy agreed, rubbing his arm. "I've given up once or twice. My friends are all better fighters than I am. But I persisted, and...now I stand a small chance if I don't have any weapons at any given moment."

"Is that your way of saying I should be practicing?"

"It's my way of offering to help," Billy clarified. "I know it's difficult and frustrating. I know it's easy to be embarrassed and want to quit. But I can go slowly with you, like everyone else did with me," he suggested.

"No pressure, though. You're far more capable of spontaneous death rays, so you might not need the help like I did.

"I.... are you going to hit me with a stick if I don't wake up early enough?"

"...what? That's a training method?" Billy is suspicious. He doesn't like the sound of it in the slightest.

"No. I might gently knock on the door, but I don't believe that punitive action is always necessary to build strength. I can be patient like the tortoise," he assured her. A saying that Trini's uncle had been so fond of applying to him.

"She says it is," she said with a small child scowl.

"Then she's wrong," Billy argues simply, crossing his arms. "It may be a helpful motivator, but there are other ways. You might just have to tailor it to the person you're training...you, for example, can likely be motivated with new tools and projects."

Right? He's getting this down.

"You'll... give me new tools... if I exercise with you? And you wont hit me?"

"I promise. On both counts," he smiled at her. He just...wouldn't promise any particular tools---if she wants another five death rays, she'll have to build them herself.

"DEAL!" She said happily. "Then I can tell Zeetha I was training, so maybe she'll hit me less, AND I get new tools!"

She clambered to her feet and hugged him. It's some how less embarrassing and more endearing when she is a child, is it not? And yet... still so very much Agatha.

Billy returned the gesture, feeling gratified, and...strangely, a little light-headed. Something was definitely stirring inside him.

"I'm sorry, Aggie---I'll teach you later, I promise, but I might need to lie down for a little while."

She blinked rapidly. "Are you not feeling well?" she asked, instantly concerned, which cut through the kiddyness of her change.

"I'm not," he confirmed. "Something's buzzing in my head, it's...making it hard to think."

He slumped against the wall, pulling off his glasses to bury his face in his hands.

"Oh! I get that sometimes! I learned that when the noises start buzzing in your head, making it hard to think, you just make this noise and all the other noises go away!" That said, she clapped her hands together and started Heterodyning.

No matter the age, she was still her. "I don't think I can do that," Billy shook his head. "I'm still ordinary."

Relatively ordinary, anyway.

She looked as though he had struck her. Or worse. Just a horrified, sick look on her face.

She swallowed hard several times, unable to speak.

"Aggie?"

Billy fought down that headache to sit a little closer to her, looking very worried. "What's wrong?"

She put her hands over her face. A million memories, a million small moments flooded into her. She swallowed hard.

"Lars," she whispered, shoulders shaking.

Billy clenched a fist. In this case, he'd probably better not get too close, but she needed someone here, didn't she?

"Lars? Is that someone you know?" he asked gently.

She closed her eyes tightly, tears spilling between her fingers.

"Knew..." she whispered. "Before I knew how to bring people back..."

"He's a friend who died," Billy realized, suddenly feeling horrible. He pulled his knees up and sat.

"I didn't hear about him before. I'm sorry. Is there...anything I can do?"

He's the most useless with questions.

Her eyes snapped open, and she got to her feet and stalked over, all three foot of her. she grabbed his shirt and shook him, which some how managed to be both adorable and terrifying at the same time.

"You are not ordinary! You can do anything, be anything you want! You have chance with ANYONE! YOU ARE NOT ORDINARY!" she scolded him.

That was a jolt to the system. He braced himself against the wall, trying to keep from smacking his head again. Wouldn't help the headache any. But one thing about her little rant stuck out.

"What do you mean 'have a chance with'?"

She blinked, realized what she said as her eyes widened. She let go of him, turned, grabbed what she had of the deathray and fled, horrified at herself.

"Aggie!" Billy called after her, struggling to his feet. Whatever was affecting him seemed to worsen, so there was no way he'd catch her, but...

...this could be bad, he thought as he moved. He'd really screwed it up this time.

She kept running, sprinting down the halls as fast as her little legs could carry her, tears on her face.

"I'm sorry! Can we talk about this?" he called after her, forcing himself to push on. He'd really be wiped by the end of this..and about three feet shorter, but still.

She fled into her room and closed and locked the door, racing for the bed, and climbing under it. She wanted her uncle. She wanted Lilith and Adam. She wanted... wanted to have never watched anyone she loved die. She wanted to have never lost anyone.

And she wanted to not lose Billy...

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Kid plot - OTA - Aggie on break

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