A Herculean Test

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Job Sign-Up: Page 8, Post Number 221

-Motor City, early morning, outside Dr. Reid's Laboratory-

Following the instructions sent to her by Dr. Reid in a letter, Leona found herself standing outside of an imposing warehouse in Motor City. Wearing her blue, white, and gold outfit with Argent Gloves on her hands and Ses Revanche in her right boot, Leona had been called to Motor City to aid Dr. Loretta Reid with a special project that she had been working on for the past five months. Dr. Reid would not mention what that project was in the letter, saying only that the Wizard Saint would find out once she arrived at the laboratory.

It had been a full day since Leona's adventure in Midi with Minako Kasamoto, the swordswoman from Okyto who had enlisted Leona's help in recovering a Kasamoto family sword from a gang of bandits who had beaten her up and stolen the weapon three months ago. Thanks to Leona and Guardian Lion running interference to keep Minako from being swarmed and beaten up for a second time, the swordswoman confronted and defeated the bandit leader in an anticlimactic battle that ended in one sword stroke. It turned out that the bandit leader had laughable swordsmanship and had to rely on his henchmen to do the dirty work, making Leona wonder how he had gotten to lead a gang without having any fighting ability.

Maybe he had risen to leadership through force of personality instead of physical prowess. Maybe he did not expect Leona and Guardian Lion to rip through his henchmen like tissue paper. Or maybe he had actual fighting ability but was so angered by Minako pointing out that he had to rely on others to help him win the first fight against her that rage clouded his judgment. At any rate he would not live to make that mistake again because Leona killed him after he attempted to rush Minako and stab her in the back after he had surrendered and returned the Kasamoto family sword to her. Leona was content to let the man live after he had surrendered, but once he tried to rush Minako and stab her in the back he had forfeited that chance and the Wizard Saint stopped him for good by stepping in front of him and running him through with Shoki before he could reach his intended target.

The Wizard Saint was still sort of tired from the trip from Midi to Silver Wolf Guild Hall, but she had responsibilities to take care of. She had gotten up early to try and begin reading some of the scholarly works on the kingdom of Museria that she had purchased from Capital Crocus when the letter for Dr. Reid arrived at the guild hall. Leona had set the books aside and gotten dressed for the trip to Motor City but had neglected to drink some coffee before she left and now she was feeling the fatigue. Still, she had work to do.

Leona pressed a button on an intercom outside the door.

"Password?" A female voice asked. Leona looked at the letter sent to her and looked for the password she would need to gain entry to the laboratory. It was located in a small note written at the bottom of the letter.

"Faraday." Leona answered. The door opened and in the doorway stood Dr. Reid herself.

"Hello Leona! Welcome to my lab!" Dr. Reid welcomed Leona to her laboratory, which was located in the warehouse district of Motor City. Dr. Reid was wearing a very casual outfit consisting of a midriff-baring pink tank top, a pink skirt that was almost too short, and fuzzy pink bedroom slippers with an open lab coat to round out the "tired scientist" look. She was clutching a white mug that read "I'll sleep when I'm dead!" in black letters. Her long blonde hair was not in the best of shape... some of it was standing up like she had taken an electrical shock either last night or this morning.

"Hi Dr. Reid. I read that you needed my help with a special project?" Leona inquired.

"Yes. Please, come in and I'll tell you more!" Dr. Reid bade Leona. The Wizard Saint obliged and Dr. Reid shut the door behind Leona.

-Inside Dr. Reid's Laboratory-

Leona was standing in a room full of computer monitors displaying blueprints of various projects with various names and other scientific data that she could not even begin to understand. Dr. Reid guided Leona through the room and took her to a mini-kitchen with cabinets, counters, and a square wooden table with chairs for four.

-Inside the mini-kitchen-

"I can bring you some coffee if you'd like." Dr. Reid offered as she stopped by a coffeemaker to refill her mug. The drowsy Wizard Saint perked up at the mention of the beverage. Coffee would make her a very happy Wizard Saint.

"Yes please." Leona replied as she sat down at the wooden table. Dr. Reid fished out a spare white coffee mug from a cabinet and obligingly filled it for Leona, then brought it to the table and sat in the chair opposite the Wizard Saint.

"I've gotta warn you, it's kinda strong." Dr. Reid warned Leona before the latter took a sip. The blonde mage sipped the brew and found it to be rather strong but possessing a good taste once the strength of the first sip waned. She took another sip and spoke to the blonde doctor, who was watching Leona for her reaction.

"What brand is this coffee?" Leona asked the doctor.

"It's called Motor City Nitro. It's billed as a coffee for mechanics, engineers, doctors, nurses, and people who need a sudden jolt of energy. It's got more than three times the caffeine of the average coffee." Dr. Reid answered. Leona was unaware that Motor City made coffee, but she made a mental note of the coffee's name to possibly buy some to take back to Silver Wolf Guild Hall once she was finished here. In the meantime, she focused on the question of what had brought her here.

"What was this project you needed my help with?" Leona asked Dr. Reid in an effort to get the conversation on track. Dr. Reid set down her mug and smiled.

"Oh, right, the project I called you here for! It's a project of mine I named Hercules. I'll show you what it's all about in a few minutes... after I get my sixth cup of coffee. Coffee's fueled scientific innovation for over four centuries, you know!" Dr. Reid answered before getting up to get yet another cup of coffee. Leona was alarmed by that admission. The Wizard Saint had had one cup of Motor City Nitro and she was very close to being wired. How much did it take to get the blonde doctor wired? And did Leona really want to know the answer to that question?

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It was only a matter of seconds before Dr. Reid obtained the cup of coffee she was after and sat back down at the table, taking a sip of the hot drink. Leona waited patiently for the doctor to finish the cup and had to resist the urge to get up and get a second cup. She did not want to be wired off of too much caffeine whenever the time came to test "Hercules."

"The Hercules Project is a pet project of mine. You see, it's a special armor that enables the user to lift heavy objects that weigh many times their size. However, it's no ordinary armor that a person wears. Rather, the person controls its functions from within the armor itself." Dr. Reid finally began to explain the specifics of what she had been working on to the Wizard Saint. Leona was interested in this and found herself involuntarily leaning forward. She had never heard of an armor that someone could control from within. Until Dr. Reid had explained the details Leona thought that "Hercules" was just another form of armor that one wore like her Argent Gloves or her Adaptable Armor.

"It's a project that I've been working on for quite awhile now and it's almost reached fruition. However, I haven't been able to find a good person to test Hercules until now." Dr. Reid explained a little bit more about her project, pausing to take another drink of Motor City Nitro. Leona was intrigued as to why she was chosen instead of someone else. The blonde doctor was quick to provide an explanation for her choice.

"You see, I needed someone I could trust. Someone I could trust to keep quiet about it after testing until it's complete and ready to market. If the wrong people catch wind of what I'm doing here and steal the Hercules prototype then I'll be in deep trouble. What's worse, they could use it to wreak a lot of havoc before they're stopped." Dr. Reid explained why the Wizard Saint had been chosen.

"OK." Leona said in response to what she had been told so far. Leona would need to see "Hercules" for herself before deciding whether it posed as much of a threat as its creator claimed it could be. Dr. Reid stood up, got a seventh cup of the high-caffeine coffee, and motioned to Leona to follow her.

"C'mon Leona. I can sit here and talk all day about it, but you won't fully understand what I'm saying until you see it for yourself. Follow me and I'll show you my greatest project to date." Dr. Reid encouraged the blonde mage. Getting her cup and failing to resist the urge to get a second cup of Motor City Nitro, Leona filled her coffee mug and followed quickly behind the scientist out of a door that led out of the mini-kitchen and opened onto a large warehouse.

-Inside the warehouse-

Leona followed Dr. Reid into a warehouse that was mostly empty except for a rectangular wooden table to the left and three large metal crates dotting the expanse. Dr. Reid motioned for Leona to go through and the Wizard Saint obeyed, then shut the door behind her. Leona looked around and spotted what looked like a red barrel with arms and legs sitting about twenty-five meters to the right of them. Dr. Reid drank from her mug and gestured towards it.

"See that? That's Hercules." Dr. Reid said to the blonde, who was drinking from her coffee mug when she lowered it to get a glimpse at the vaunted "Hercules" project. Leona was not very impressed and could not hide it. The scientist was quick to pick up on that and quicker to comment.

"Oh, it looks a lot more impressive once it's powered up and standing upright. You'll get the honor of doing just that." Dr. Reid said to Leona. The Wizard Saint blinked.

"Walk over to it and climb in, then take a seat. I'll tell you what to do to power it up." Dr. Reid instructed Leona. Leona set down her half-finished mug of coffee and walked over to the red barrel, then put her hands on its back and pulled herself inside the armor. She sat down and got comfortable the best she could, putting her legs inside the spacious armor until they came to rest on pedals, one on each side where a leg was. Dr Reid sauntered over to the armor a minute after Leona had gotten inside and had gotten as comfortable as she could get in an unfamiliar machine.

"OK, do you see the red button in the center of the chest?" Dr. Reid asked Leona. The Wizard Saint looked down at a strip with a glass cover that looked like a series of gauges. She spotted a button in the center just below what she took to be the gauges and nodded.

"I see it." Leona answered.

"Push it and prepare to be amazed. You might want to grip the control handles before the armor goes upright. I haven't worked on the shock absorbers yet, but that's the first thing on my list after your test" Dr. Reid cautioned the test pilot. Leona quickly tapped the button with her right index finger and quickly grabbed the control handles located a short distance from her chest. Leona shrieked as the armor whirred to life and stood upright.

"So, what do you think of Project Hercules now?" Dr. Reid asked calmly.

"I'm impressed." Leona commented with sincerity. Since she did not know what to do and was afraid of wrecking the suit or destroying Dr. Reid's warehouse/testing facility, she remained absolutely still. The seat was fairly comfortable but did not take into account someone with Leona's backside sitting inside of it. Leona had a firm grip of the control handles and they were comfortable to hold onto for extended periods of time.

"If you'll wait a minute, I'll go get wireless headsets so that we can remain in communication during the testing of Project Hercules." Dr. Reid requested. Leona took her right hand off of the control handle and flashed a thumbs-up. The blonde scientist set her mug on the table beside Leona's and disappeared into the mini-kitchen, leaving the Wizard Saint in command of the armor. Leona was impressed with the doctor's work, but she was also apprehensive about the potential power at her command. The suit felt heavy and somewhat imbalanced, but that could just be the blonde mage's overly caffeinated nerves getting to her.

In a matter of roughly three minutes Dr. Reid returned clutching a black wireless headset that she threw to Leona, who caught it in both hands without trouble. She put it on and flicked the switch behind the right earpiece. There was a loud beep and the headset came on.

"Leona, can you hear me?" Dr. Reid asked Leona.

"I can hear you." Leona reported calmly as she waited for further instructions.

Hercules Project Armor:

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Sitting inside the now-active Hercules Armor, Leona gripped the control sticks and waited for instructions from Dr. Reid, who was sensibly standing at a safe distance from the armor in case something went wrong.

"OK Leona, do you see the foot pedals?" Dr. Reid asked her.

"Yes Doctor, my feet are on them." Leona answered calmly.

"Press them in with your feet and the suit will begin moving. The auto-balancer will keep you from falling over unless something forces you to fall over." Dr. Reid counseled her. Leona obligingly pressed both petals in with her feet and the suit began to move at roughly human walking pace. The blonde mage was amazed at how smoothly it moved.

"Press the pedals down and hold them if you want to move forward. If you want to go slower, take one foot off of either pedal and the Hercules will move at a slower pace. If you want to stop entirely, take both feet off of the pedals. For now move forward until I tell you to do otherwise." The scientist told Leona. Leona obeyed and kept both feet on the pedals. She moved forward about twenty meters before more instructions came in over the wireless headset.

"Now take one foot off the pedal and go slower." Came the command. Leona took her left foot off of the left pedal and the suit slowed down accordingly. She proceeded at the slower pace for another twenty meters until she was told what to do next.

"Now take both feet off and come to a complete stop." She was instructed. The Wizard Saint took both feet off and the suit came to a stop so fast that it threw Leona forward and made her chest slam against the control sticks. Both arms shot out, causing her to shriek in surprise when that happened.

"Oh dear. I'll definitely need to work on the shock absorbers after this test. You're learning how to maneuver the Hercules Armor very well for someone who just got behind the wheel, so to speak." Dr. Reid commented on Leona's piloting ability.

"Beginner's luck." Leona commented laconically as the arms returned to the sides of the suit after she returned the control sticks to the neutral position. Her chest size worked against her here because it slammed against the control sticks to move the arms, but as long as she did not experience another violent jolt forward everything would be fine.

"Now that you can work the legs, try the arms. To move the arms, move the appropriate stick forward. Left stick for the left arm, right stick for the right arm." Dr. Reid instructed Leona. Leona carefully moved the left stick forward and the left arm moved smoothly like it was her own flesh-and-blood arm being moved. She slowly drew the left stick back and moved the right stick forward. Again the arm responded smoothly and without a problem.

"Good work, Leona. Now I'd like you to return to me and walk a lap around the perimeter of the warehouse before we begin the testing in earnest." Dr. Reid requested.

"OK, will do." Leona answered in the affirmative. She started to move the suit forward but realized something important. She did not know how to turn the Hercules Armor around!

"Oh my, I forgot to tell you how to turn the armor around! It's simple. Just gently place both feet on the pedals, then turn both control sticks in the direction you want to turn." Dr. Reid provided Leona with just the tip she needed to get moving in the right direction. Leona ceased movement immediately, then slowly put both feet on the pedals and gently turned both sticks left. The suit immediately began to turn left and Leona held her breath as it turned until she faced Dr. Reid, upon which she gently shifted the sticks back to the neutral position and took her left foot off of the pedal so that she moved at a slow enough pace to remain in control of the armor's walking speed. A small smile formed on the blonde mage's lips as the armor smoothly strode forward.

Once she reached the doctor's position the doctor stepped aside and took position behind the wooden table. Using what she had just learned, Leona maneuvered the suit until she faced left and began to move the armor towards the wall at half the walking speed. Once she felt comfortable with the walking speed she eased her left foot onto the pedal to move at full speed. Leona reached the wall in a matter of seconds and faced left to continue the lap around the warehouse perimeter. The Wizard Saint followed the wall until she completed the lap and returned to Dr. Reid's position.

"Well done, Leona. You're picking up how to use the Hercules Armor pretty fast." Dr. Reid complimented her again.

"I'm impressed with how easy it is to use." Leona complimented the blonde scientist on the ease of use of what looked like a sophisticated piece of high-tech machinery.

"It's intended to be used on construction sites to aid construction workers in the movement of heavy objects. I deliberately made it as easy to use and maintain as possible." Dr. Reid revealed more of the purpose behind the project. Leona could see how something like this would be useful if the hands could be opened from fists. Maybe the doctor would tell Leona how to use that feature soon.

"Now before we begin using the arms, I have one last mobility test for you to take." She said to Leona, who was feeling confident in her ability to pilot the Hercules Armor and was ready for it.

"OK, what did you want me to do?" Leona asked the doctor.

"First, turn the suit around 180 degrees." She started giving a set of instructions. Leona wordlessly complied with the directions and maneuvered until she faced away from the doctor. She waited for the next directive, which was not long in coming.

"Now I'd like you to press down hard on both pedals at once. That will activate the dash feature of the Hercules Armor. I suggest that you hold onto the control sticks tight before engaging the dash feature." Dr. Reid counseled Leona. Leona blinked. This heavy armor could dash? How far could it dash and how fast could the armor go at full speed?

Leona was about to find out. The Wizard Saint took a deep breath and tightened her grip on the control sticks. She then raised her feet to press down hard on the foot pedals and try out the dash ability.

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Leona took a deep breath and pressed down hard on both foot pedals at once. The result was spectacular. The Hercules Armor leaned forward a little and propelled itself at speeds that the blonde did not think were possible for a hunk of metal this size. Leona clenched her teeth and endured the dash, which covered roughly 50 meters in about three seconds. The stop was smoother than she imagined it would be; she had imagined herself being propelled over the front but had stayed in her seat with only minor jarring upon deceleration. It was an impressive feature in an already impressive piece of engineering, but it made the Wizard Saint think of a question she wanted to ask.

Why did Dr. Reid make such a function for what was meant to be a construction site tool?

"I see that you engaged the dash ability and weren't thrown out by the sudden acceleration and deceleration. What do you think of it?" Dr. Reid asked Leona.

"I'm impressed by it. I thought that I'd be thrown out by the sudden stop, but I wasn't." Leona reported truthfully. Dr. Reid had put a lot of thought into the creation of the Hercules Armor. While the armor looked like it had minimal safety features, the seat did a good job of keeping the pilot safely seated and upright.

"Now that we've tested that, let's begin testing the arms. I know you're wondering why the hands are balled into fists. There's a way to open the hands to carry heavy objects. All you have to do is press the red button on top of each control stick. If you want to open the left hand, press the red button on top of the left stick... same goes for the right hand." Dr. Reid informed Leona. Again the blonde mage had a favorable opinion of the ease of use of the armor. The controls were fairly intuitive and easy to learn, which made the Hercules Armor usable by almost anyone with enough time to familiarize themselves with the controls. That could be an asset and a liability.

"Turn the armor to face me and we'll test the hands." Dr. Reid instructed. Leona easily turned the Hercules Armor around and faced the scientist.

"OK, first we try the left hand." She instructed, holding up and opening her own left hand as a visual aid. Leona pressed the red button on top of the left control stick with her thumb and the left hand opened without a hitch.

"Good. Now let's try the right hand." Came the next command. She held up and opened her right hand. Leona used her right thumb to press the button on top of the control stick and the right hand opened without a hitch.

"Now close both hands, one after the other." She instructed. Leona gently released first the left button, then the right one exactly as instructed. The hands closed as smoothly as they had opened.

"Excellent. Both hands work, which is good because you'll need them for the test of the armor's ability to carry a heavy crate. See where I'm going with this?" Dr. Reid asked Leona. The Wizard Saint quickly gathered that the three metal crates spaced out around the warehouse floor were not here for aesthetic purposes, but for the test. Learning to slow down and think before speaking was a recently learned skill that was serving Leona well.

"I see where you're going with this." Leona answered in the affirmative.

"Excellent. Now turn the armor around and walk over to the first crate that you see, then try and pick it up. Don't worry about falling over. The auto-balancer will keep you on your feet when you lift the crate." Dr. Reid commanded her.

"Understood." Leona reported back before carefully turning the armor around and advancing towards the nearest metal crate, which was about forty meters away from her. She covered that distance in a few seconds of walking and came to a stop in front of the crate in question. Leona then opened the hands of both arms and gently pushed the control sticks forward to reach out and grab the crate.

Leona held her breath as the open hands were maneuvered to be parallel with the crate. She carefully maneuvered the arms until the hands touched the metal crate, then closed the hands. The hands automatically gripped the crate and held it securely. Leona gently worked the control sticks until the arms were level with the chest.

"Good, good. I know you can't see me, so I'll walk you through this. First turn the armor until I say stop." The scientist instructed. Leona obeyed and slowly turned the armor until the order to stop came.

"OK, stop." Came the terse instructions. Leona obeyed and stopped where she was.

"Now walk forward at a normal pace until I say stop." Dr. Reid directed Leona. The Wizard Saint complied and began to make the armor walk forward. She listened carefully for the order to stop and obeyed when it was given.

"OK, now walk forward at half-speed." The next command instructed. Leona obeyed and took her left foot off of the pedal while gently pushing the right pedal down and the suit moved at half its normal speed. True to Dr. Reid's word the suit was staying perfectly balanced despite the weight of the crate being held in its hands.

"Stop and turn around, then set the crate down on the floor." Dr. Reid instructed. Leona stopped where she was and gently maneuvered the armor around until she had completed a 180-degree turn or something approximating one. She then worked the control sticks to move the arms down, then opened the hands once the crate was a few inches from the floor. The crate landed with a loud CLANG and wobbled a bit but soon stabilized itself. Leona breathed a sigh of relief when it was apparent that the crate was going to remain upright.

"Great work, Leona. You might be able to use the Hercules on a construction site one day!" Dr. Reid praised the Wizard Saint.

"I managed to use it thanks to your help." Leona deflected the praise. She was not nearly as smart as a Guild Mistress should be, but she was slowly learning skills appropriate to her station. She was learning to use a piece of technology that was not commonplace and she had managed to do so in a short period of time thanks to the doctor's clear instructions and the emphasis on ease of use that went into the Hercules Armor's design.

"Now return the armor to where you found it and turn it off. I'd like for you to talk to me about your experience piloting the Hercules Armor." Dr. Reid instructed Leona.

"Understood. Returning now." Leona reported back. There was no need to hurry, so she went at half-speed until she was at almost the exact location she had found the armor, then turned it to face the crate and the far warehouse wall. She then pressed the power button and she yelped as the armor suddenly lowered itself on the reverse-jointed legs. Once it was fully lowered and was not going to move any further Leona climbed out of the suit, being careful not to hit the power button and accidentally reactivate it on her way out.

"Nice work, Leona! Let's take a coffee break!" Dr. Reid suggested with a smile once Leona's feet hit the floor and the blonde mage was away from the dormant armor.

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-In the mini-kitchen, thirty-five minutes later-

"So Leona, what did you think of the Hercules Armor?" Dr. Reid asked Leona while pouring herself out yet another cup of Motor City Nitro. Leona was worried that the overly caffeinated doctor might suffer from health problems related to excessive caffeine consumption before the former could answer the question, but then she remembered that Dr. Reid had likely built up a tolerance to the beverage. With that possibility in mind the Wizard Saint focused on answering the question that had been put to her.

"I think it's an impressive piece of technology." Leona started off her assessment with a candid answer. She had not experienced anything like it before, which meant that the bar was pretty low. However, she had answered honestly because the Hercules Armor was an impressive prototype of a concept that had only been conceived several months before.

"I'm impressed with the balance of the armor... it remained balanced while I was maneuvering it with and without the weight of a heavy object in its hands. I'm also impressed with how easy it was to learn how to control it. The controls were simple and intuitive. The armor also had a good movement rate at either full speed or half-speed." Leona reported further while Dr. Reid listened with interest. Leona was about to add more to the assessment when the scientist held up a finger and left the mini-kitchen to go in the direction of the computer lab. The blonde mage stopped talking and quietly waited for Dr. Reid to return before saying anything else. Within three minutes she had returned with some papers attached to a clipboard along with a pen and set them both in front of Leona.

"I'd like for you to fill out this assessment for me so that I have the positives and negatives of the Hercules Armor in writing. I plan to improve the design soon and I need all the input you can give me in writing." Dr. Reid requested of Leona. The Wizard Saint did not complain when faced with a sudden bureaucratic challenge. She took up the pen and began to carefully read the forms put in front of her before writing anything down.

"Now what were you going to say?" Dr. Reid asked Leona to resume the verbal assessment of the doctor's project. Leona thought back to earlier and soon remembered what she was going to say before the unexpected interruption.

"I was going to say that the ergonomics need a bit of work. The seat wasn't exactly made for someone with a backside as big as mine, but the seat was comfortable enough once I got the armor moving." Leona gave a mixed review of the seat. Dr. Reid looked at Leona's backside and soon got what the blonde mage meant.

"Understood." Dr. Reid said simply to avoid embarrassing the Wizard Saint.

"Please take that with a grain of salt because male construction workers probably won't have my body proportions." Leona quickly tacked on an addendum to her criticism of the seat. Dr. Reid nodded and the pair moved on.

"What else needs work?" Dr. Reid asked as Leona jotted down a few of the Hercules Armor's positive aspects in the allotted space on a list.

"I'd say that you need to improve the shock absorbers. I was jostled about quite a bit when the armor activated and stood upright. I was also jostled around whenever I stopped the armor. I was jostled a third time when the armor powered down with me in it." Leona answered before looking over the next page, which was a list of negative aspects of the Hercules Armor. She carefully thought about her criticisms and jotted them down in the list.

"Anything else?" Dr. Reid asked. The tip of Leona's pen hovered over a third line where she could write down a negative aspect when she thought of a statement to make before she committed the criticism to paper.

"The range of motion for the arms seems to be limited. They can't reach too far up from the chest." Leona stated to the doctor.

"I'm still working on how to increase the range of motion for the arms because construction workers are gonna need to lift things over their heads with the armor." Dr. Reid stated that she was already working on that problem, so Leona moved the tip of the pen away from the line. Hearing about lifting loads over the user's head prompted Leona to think of another statement to make. There did not seem to be very many safety features for the pilot.

"I didn't notice very many safety features for the pilot. My upper body and head were exposed and didn't have any kind of protection, not even a roll cage. If something heavy fell on me while I was piloting the armor and I couldn't get out of the way in time things would have gotten messy." Leona added further.

"That's another problem I'm working on solving. A roll cage isn't strong enough to withstand many falling construction site objects and enclosing the pilot's head would add complexity to the design. I'll just have to work on that problem for awhile." Dr. Reid responded. Leona kept the tip of her pen away from the paper and tried to think of something else meaningful to add. She had already covered most of the concerns she could think of and Dr. Reid had convincing answers for the rest. Leona set the pen down and flipped ahead to the next page, which was an overall assessment of the project.

Leona began to write down her thoughts as Dr. Reid looked on and got yet another cup of coffee. How much Motor City Nitro could the blonde scientist drink without suffering from health issues? Who knew?

Leona continued to write down her thoughts on the project and saw that she had quite a few forms to fill out. Filling them all out was going to take awhile, but the privilege of testing the Hercules Armor was worth filling out paperwork for. Even the non-disclosure agreement that swore her to secrecy did not dampen her spirits. Maybe the euphoria Leona felt after learning to pilot the Hercules Armor was what scientific discovery was all about.

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