Shields [Open, NR]

Hours were spent re-studying his Armor Lock system while he tried thinking of other ways that it could be applied. Since there were little robots that rolled around and bring him food if he asked them to, Matt transformed the kitchen of his suite into a laboratory of sorts. He was hard at work with many machines, attempting to make energy particles wrap around a part of his armor. It was a slow progress, but it was coming along.

He was wearing a pair of glasses that magnified his vision many times, but at the same time gave him a cartoon appearance. The kitchen sink, and the booth where the stove was, had been occupied now by machinery and containers for notes and more machinery. Matt was sitting at one of the stools at the booth with his special machine that continually attempted to cause the energy particles to wrap themselves around his armor. Matt himself made precise fixtures to the circuits with special tools his father designed. With speed and a shield on his side, Matt knew he had this in the bag.

Cala had spent the past few hours with her sister, Devon, ensuring that the girl was okay, and hearing about the hundred and one things she had done at the park when she had gone, or about the fact that she had figured out how to operate the microwave all by herself; something which had had Cala grinning as she tried to imagine her sister with that determined look on her face as she stood before the rather simple electronic. So, after spending several hours with her sister, playing catch up, and the big-sister role she figured it was time to go try and talk to V about what was stopping her from reading his mind; something both she and Alec were curious about.

She had got a quick shower, rinsing off the rest of the ocean smell as her sister had put it, which was replaced with the smell of her green apple scented shampoo and conditioner, and red apple scented body wash. She threw her long purple and black hair into a ponytail, bangs and all, while it was still damp, and then got dressed. She threw on a black v-neck tank top, black cotton pants, her gloves that V had given her, and her black sneakers. Finally she threw her usual short-sleeved cat eared hoodie on over top, but left the hood down and the front of it unzipped.

After ensuring she had her keys on her, and her cellphone encase her sister needed anything, she exited her suite and headed the short distance to Matt's, where she knocked softly.

Matt opened the door to reveal he was dressed like he usually was, his purple Gengar hoodie, the hood down, the black T shirt, grey cargo pants and black kicks, but on his eyes were the comical glasses he used when building and fixing things. Seeing Cala in the hall brought a grin to his lips.

"Come on in!" he said, before turning to go back to the kitchen. Sitting on the stool again he picked back up his tools and went to work again on his new shield technology. "Listen, when it's you at the door you don't have to knock, I want you to just come in."

Matt could smell the fruity scents on her and found himself wanting to run his nose along her skin to take a long inhale of her. "Sooooo...what's up, pretty lady?"

A small giggle escaped her at the glasses that made his eyes huge; especially because she hadn't been expecting to see him in them. She followed him inside, closing the door softly behind herself, before she went and followed him into what was the kitchen. She blinked curiously as she looked around. "Alright, I'll keep that in mind.", she responded to his comment about her not having to knock, and to just come on in.

She looked at what he went back to work on, and tilted her head a bit to the side in curiosity. "Nothing much.. I found myself bored after I finished checking on my sister and ensuring she didn't shove anything into the electrical outlets or anything..." She turned her mismatched gaze back on to V, and found her mind automatically reaching out like it sometimes did, wanting to poke and prod at his, but with no luck. It was almost like knocking on a brick wall or something.

"So... I know this might be random... but you know I'm a vampire... and more importantly a Malkavian. Well, my shit's mainly mental based. Listening to the other Malkavian's I can hear in my head, hearing all their voices, telepathy, mind reading.. that fun stuff." She shook her head, trying not to loose focus. "Anyway, what I'm getting at is, there's not many people who can just... block me. And normally, even when I'm not trying to listen in to someone's thoughts, I can still feel their mind in a way.. But with you.. I feel nothing, I hear nothing. Not even a random thought. Why is that?"

The energy particles began to wrap around the piece of armor and remain stable. They break every so often, but Matt kept making adjustments to the circuits, a crazy cartoon look on his face while he worked. Little sparks and trails of smoke rose from the circuits.

"I got struck by lightning one day," he said. "It was right after I decided to become The Vigilante, the same day I first tried out my Nanoids. Was kinda scared; the last ones cooked a cat and blew up a dog...turned a rabbit inside out. My new ones, I spent forever tweeking, went over everything and went over it again, made sure everything was legitimate...The sun was shining that day, but I got hit with lightning anyway for some reason. I remember it was somewhere around this building..."

Matt turned his machine on again and began evenly spreading the energy particles across the armor. "Woke up a month later in a hospital bed, in a center for 'gifted people.' Doctors told me I died 3 times, but made a miraculous recovery nothing short of a miracle, but it was my Nanoids...That lightning strike gave birth to something. What did the doctors call it... Negation? They gave me a bunch of tests before I left, other people would launch fireballs and electricity at each other, but when they tried to shoot it at me it never worked. I guess I have the power to turn other people's power off, supernatural stuff and the like, it won't work on me. I can control it for the most part, but sometimes I don't have control and it just sorta turns itself on on it's own..."

She watched him, curious as to what he was doing. She listened carefully to the short story he told her of how he got his negation, saving it all to memory. She knew random storms tended to happen when one of the Kane's were pissed off, and she knew that when Destiny was a little girl anytime she swore she tended to get struck by what Cala figured was God himself as punishment... but three years ago? Well, she wasn't here then, so she couldn't tell him where it had come from, or why there had been a bolt of lightning lingering around on such a lovely day.

"Ah, well that definitely explains why I can't hear anything when it comes to you, or feel it either. Not even a mental impression. But at least it's a handy thing to have." She looked back to what he was working on, curiously. "So, what are you working on now?" She figured it was probably something for his suite, but what it was, she couldn't even begin to guess.

The final fixes and adjustments were made. He stood to his feet and put on his armor suit, opening a panel on his left wrist and attaching his new device, then closing it again. A new icon appeared on his heads-up display, indicating how much energy was left in his new shield. When he activated it, the entire suit was enveloped in a coat of energy. After a moment, the energy became transparent. Matt estimated 5 hits before the shield failed and had to be recharged; in that time taking any hits would probably hurt.

Matt de-activated the shield system and took his armor off again, nodding his head with a satisfied grin. "It's a new shielding system, one of my dad's unfinished projects," he said, sitting on his stool again, picking up a new set of parts and machines and resuming with his tinkering. "My dad was a doctor, but he had a lot of unfinished stuff that didn't have anything to do with medical techniques...I'm starting to think maybe this was the reason my parents disappeared in the first place."

An investigation that was on going. One of these days he knew he'd get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding his parents' disappearance and murders...

She continued to watch him, blinking as he put his armor on. She listened to him as he explained about the shielding system, and the fact that his father was a doctor... and why his side experiments might have been the reason his parents disappeared. Her head suddenly tilted, an idea having come to mind. She had made nice with Niala after that meeting in Alec's office, when she had gone to apologize to her before she checked on her sister... and she knew that Niala had a very super special gift: the gift of finding out anything and everything...

"Matt... what would you say if I told you I know someone who could find those answers for you? Who could touch you, so long as you can momentarily cancel your negation, and find out all of that information for you? Would you be willing to do it?" She knew Niala would be willing to do it; she was always willing to help. In fact, when Cala had left she had even told her that if she ever needed anything all she had had to do was ask. Maybe Matt could find out his answers if he wanted to...

All she would have to do is throw a quick text Niala's way and she'd be here in a matter of no time at all.

Matt stopped working on the device before him, the words "DROP SHIELD" written on the side. He thought about what Cala asked him for a while. To instantly know everything right then and there, all questions answered. The whole curtain that was up, blocking the mystery would be taken down.

...No, that would be too easy. Like going to a fortune teller or a psychic for answers. Matt wanted to do this his way. He resumed working on the new shield device. "...No thanks, Cala," he answered. "I don't want to put in a cheat code...I want to find out for myself." A look of determination was on his face while he worked. No matter how long it took, he was going to get to the bottom of things if it killed him.

Matt did a test of the new drop shield on the counter before him. A small bubble with many hexagons appeared surrounding an army man on the counter. The goal was to be able to make a life-sized version which could protect and also heal the person beneath it. He thought he was halfway there.

Cala smiled gently and nodded her head, she couldn't blame him for wanting to do things his own way, to find out the secrets and mysteries himself. "Alright, I can understand that. Just know that I'm willing to help if you need it in any way I can." She watched his shield cover the little army man and smiled before stepping close to Matt and gently wrapping her arms around him from the side, resting her cheek on him momentarily as she hugged him, before letting go, not wanting to distract him from his work.

"Still preparing for that fight with Xan? When's that supposed to be?" She knew it had to be coming up sooner or later, perhaps even later today... She just hoped that Xan meant what he had said to Alec, that what he was going to do would end up helping Matt in the end.

Matt didn't mind the hug at all. He rubbed his own cheek back against her when she came close. Afterwards, Matt continued to test the mini shield out on the army man until he had it into a perfect dome covering him, and several other army men. He nodded his head with a grin and began to make the finishing touches to the life-sized mode.

"Yeah," he said in response to getting ready for Xan. "But this is more of something to protect innocent people, and using some of the tech my dad made for his Nanoids, it can also heal people too. Something to have in case some epic brawl breaks out in the middle of downtown, y'know?"

He closed the device after a few final tweeks, putting his armor on once more to add in the new program. Matt flexed his fingers, wondering when the best time would be to go and have this showdown with the crime boss. But staying here and possibly feeling up the sexy girl was another good idea too.

Cala nodded and grinned. "That's awesome... definitely would come in handy, especially if we end up foiling another of those bank robbery's or something. I've noticed that a lot of cowards don't care about causing harm to innocent victims..." That was for sure, too. A lot of bad guys liked to hide behind innocent people, use them as shields, or hell... there were those who didn't care about accidentally hurting innocent people, too.

She watched as he finished and then she wrapped her arms around him again, lightly pressing her body against his, as she hugged him, this time without letting go as she had before. "So... you heading over to fight Xan right now?" She placed her cheek against his shoulder, staring at him curiously.

Matt considered going back to that Massage Parlor then and there while taking his armor off again, but then Cala came close to give him a hug. Suddenly he wasn't really in a rush to go face off against the old man; instead he would much rather spend time around the new girlfriend.

"I thought about it, but I can hold off on that if there's something you had in mind to do," he said. "I know where that guy is, it's not like he's going anywhere. What would you like to do?" He turned fully toward her on the stool. He didn't think he knew much about being a boyfriend since he'd never been with a girl before, but as long as she had a smile on her face, then maybe that meant he was doing something right.

Realizing he still had those glasses on and he must have looked pretty stupid he took them off and rubbed his eyes....

Cala smiled gently and shook her head. "Why don't you go whoop Xan's ass, get it out of the way... then when you get back maybe we could go watch a movie or something... Don't even have to go out to do it, we could just make a bowl of popcorn, curl up on the couch?" She was all for the idea of just some one on one time with Matt: preferably without the inevitable battle with Xan looming over their heads.

She would match rather just be able to chill and hang out without having to worry about what was going to happen with that fight with Xan. She leaned down, lightly putting her lips against his as she tilted her head slightly to the side, kissing him as she lightly wrapped her arms around his neck.

She broke the kiss after a moment, grinning. "Besides, best not to keep someone like Xan waiting."

It was time to go bring down a crime boss then; this was the thought in his head while kissing Cala, either of his hands on her hips. Better to go get it over with. He almost wanted to call the whole idea off at the feel of her lips pressing against his but he had a hero role to uphold. The old man would be expecting him.

He stood up while his armor covered him again, stealing one more taste of her lips before the helmet enveloped his whole head. "You got yourself a date then," he said, walking over to the window and opening it. "I'll try to make this quick. Wish me luck?"

The Vigilante jumped out and dive bombed hundreds of stories toward the ground...

/Exit/