Kal tilted his head. "M-me? Test them?" A soft smile spread across his lips. "Damn… I mean, I thought you would never even consider me after the fun little ordeal we had, huh?" He laughed again, running a hand through his long hair.
The commander started pacing, stroking his pudgy chin. "Weapon engineers, we have special dorms for you to begin working on your projects, that are definitely new and not making use of the old lavatories…" He cleared his throat, wiping his head even more. "Those that have been assigned to anything else, we need you collecting scrap metal and testing weapons. That is all, this meeting is adjourned, you may return to… whatever you do." He walked off, muttering to himself as the volume in the room rose slowly.
"I mean," Zanna paused as her words started to catch up to her. She needed to figure out a way to get out of this little hole she dug herself in, "You'll probably be testing weapons anyway and I doubt anyone else would be willing to work with you with how annoying you can be and all. That and we've kinda gotten stuck together by chance anyway. So yeah, you can test them."
Kal shrugged. "Can't fight you on that, I guess."
A tall, muscled kid about their age cavalierly approached Kalen. He nodded, once, sitting next to him as he ran a hand through his dark hair. "I saw you at practice. You're the one who got shot in the leg, right? How is it now?"
Kal blushed, looking down. "Oh, its… its fine. Just a scratch really"
Zanna rolled her eyes as she listened to the two's minor discussion. She crossed her arms and decided to wait until the conversation was over. It wasn't like there was much she could interject with anyway. At least not yet she couldn't.
The kid chuckled. "Sure. She took good care of you, eh?" He looked between the odd pair. "Are you guys like, together or something?"
Kal blushed even more. "Who, uh? No… I uh…" He turned to Zanna, who he assumed had better talking skills
"No. We aren't," Zanna deadpanned at the kid. She ignored Kal's red face in favor of standing up and looking down intimidatingly at the kid, "Now, I need to take this idiot back to his room so he can rest up for tomorrow."
Kal smiled awkwardly, waving goodbye as he followed Zanna out the door. He folded his arms tightly as he mumbled to himself, shaking his head.
"What?" Zanna could hear Kal mumbling as he walked out the door. She couldn't tell what about, but that didn't mean she couldn't be curious and ask. She thought she did a pretty good job diffusing the situation there.
Kal looked up, then shrugged. "I uh… I knew that kid. Back in school." He said, red faced. "God, i'm so glad to be out of there." He continued down the hall, tracing his hand along the wall while he thought about the past, and more importantly, what Zanna would have him be testing next.
"And I'm glad that he never talked to me," Zanna snorted ever so slightly. She paid no mind to his red face figuring it was from embarrassment, and it probably was. After letting out a hum, "Guess I did a good thing then."
Kal chuckled. "Weird to think I had a crush on him." He muttered, covering his mouth immediately after and praying to all things good and holy that Zanna didn't hear. "Yeah. Yeah. It was a good thing. So uh, um… What kind of uh, weapons do you make?" He quickly changed the subject, wringing his hands together as he flashed an innocent smile
Zanna raised her eyebrow at him covering his mouth. She couldn't hear what he said, but obviously he didn't mean to say it out loud. She looked ahead of them and shrugged lightly as she thought through her current weapon catalogue, "Oh you know. A whole bunch of weapons. I prefer to make energy-type guns, energy blades, and, well, anything involving energy really. I work with some more mechanical stuff, but making the parts can be such a hassle. Especially if it requires ammo."
Kal just sighed, looking up as they continued down the dimly lit halls to god knows where. He smiled softly at how passionate she was, nodding like he knew remotely what the engineer was talking about.
"So… energy. Like, the renewable stuff that kind of shocks people more?" He shrugged slightly. "I dunno. I don't know a ton about newer weapons, and I didn't pay attention too well in physics. But… it does seem a bit easier than having to make ammo and shit."
"Yeah, and making the mini generator inside the gun is just as easy," Zanna scoffed slightly, but it was in a much softer manner than her earlier tones. She hummed trying to think of how to explain it, "But at least with the generator you only make it once. Besides this type of energy is sorta shocky, but it's closer to plasma in terms of abilities and a solid in terms of consistency. It's a mess to work with if you've never done do before, but easy once you get the hang of it."
Kal chuckled. "Hell, bae, I don't know anything about these, alright?" He nodded carefully, studying each word as he tried his hardest to commit it to memory. "So… Energy guns are harder, but easier? And… they're solid and not solid and I might die testing em?" He asked with a slight smirk
"Don't call me bae," Zanna quickly responded the moment that word came out of his mouth. She nodded once after hearing his assessment, "It's unlikely that you'll die. Injuries on the other hand… But yeah, energy guns are easier to make and maintain cause you don't need to keep reloading them and making ammo."
Kal looked down, pressing his lips together and wincing slightly at her response. He didn't look back up, but kept nodding along with her explanations. "Great. That gives me comfort… but glad to hear you'll have it easy."
"Hey, I'll do my best to keep you in one piece," Zanna could see his discomfort and was trying to sooth him a little. In her rough way at least. She continued on after a moment, "Besides I don't have it easy. You just get to test, I have to be the one to fix anything that went wrong."
Kal laughed, shrugging as he looked over at her. "Alright, I'll take your word for it." He stared down the hall as she continued, noticing the Engineer's building area was coming up. "Oh, I bet. I couldn't even fix my toaster back home, so I believe fixing a huge, killing machine made out of insane shit would be a little hard." He joked.
"Toasters are baby shit," Zanna let out a small laugh at what she assumed to be a joke made by Kal. She saw that the engineering building, and her new room, was getting closer. she thought for a second, "But yeah I have the more difficult job. Anyway, want to check this place out?" She gestured to the Engineer building.
Kal laughed, holding his hands up in defense. "Hey, I told you I wasn't good with machine shit, alright? Take it easy!" He sighed, looking up at the spacious area of the space station, whistling at the view. "Damn… you got lucky." He smirked in her direction, nodding a bit. "After you, Einstein."
"Please don't call me Einstein, I am not worthy," Zanna responded as she walked up to the area. She hadn't brought her current projects with her, but she hoped there would be something to work on. She rolled her eyes slightly before stepping into the area and marveling at her surroundings. It was practically an engineer's wet dream with enough materials and room to create a whole fleet of new creations. Her mouth opened slightly as she openly showed her emotions for probably the first time in a while.
Kal laughed, trying his best to elegantly stiride in whilst limping on a gimpy leg. He was shocked as well, but not nearly as impressed as Zanna. He turned his attention to her, smiling softly at how much she seemed to appreciate the space. He cleared his throat a bit, looking around at the piles of scrap metal and wires and vats of god knows what that meant almost nothing to him.
"So, uh, is it good enough for you?" He asked, his smile only growing wider as he noticed hers
Zanna had to take another moment to get out of her stupor. This place was so much better than her old lab and she was going to love every moment she was here. She couldn't keep the grin off her face as she looked at Kal, "Good enough? This is perfect! Look at all this scrap! It's just waiting to be turned into something amazing!"
After realizing her outburst she quickly half forced the grin off her face and cleared her throat, "I mean, uh, this place is great! Com'on let's check it out."
Zanna's pure excitement only made Kal's grin widen, watching the girl dreamily as she completely obsessed over what seemed like useless hunks of garbage. "Hell yeah, it is. Glad it suits you." He chuckled, leaning against the wall and smirking.
Kal laughed at her embarrassment, eagerly following along as he admired her excited expression.
