Allison woke up the following afternoon at around 1 pm. Emilia was sitting on her bed, poking various points on her right arm and then making fists and throwing punches.

“Ems, what are you doing”?

“Calibrating. I have to adjust these parts to my reaction times and such. At least this set is the proper size… there was one time when the legs had a 4-millimeter difference. You’d be surprised how much that fucked me up”.

“How so”?

Emilia turned toward Allison and tossed a box of Twinkies. “Well, when you lean while standing still, and you are trying to stand straight up, it’s …annoying to say the least. It fucks up walking and running too. It even feels off when you’re sitting and one of your feet doesn’t exactly reach the ground, but the other does”.

Allison, who just caught the box of snack cakes, looked up at Emilia. “For the most part, I’ve seen you eat a lot of junk food, yet you don’t get fat… how? What’s your secret”?

“Well, honestly, my secret is kinda specific to me, though, with the nano-machines not working, I can’t do it either way. That reminds me, could you do me a small favor and grab the little gray box at the bottom of the wardrobe”?

“Sure”. Allison walked over to the wardrobe and retrieved the box. “This is kinda heavy. Feels like a box of ammo”.

“It is. Toss it, I need to check timing and reflexes…”

“Uhm, ok”? Allison tossed the box, which Emilia caught perfectly. “Well, that seems to work. I don’t have ammo regeneration without the nano-bots, so I have to load this the old-fashioned way, and have quite limited ammo. <system trigger, open shell case>”. She spoke those words and a part of her upper arm revealed itself. It appeared to be an empty box with 4 compartments. Emilia opened the ammo box and loaded a different type of ammunition into each compartment. She then closed her… arm, and assembled the Vulcan, switching it to a rifle configuration, then switching to 2 more configurations that were unfamiliar to Allison.

“How many types of things can that arm turn into”?

Emilia simply laughed and replied “Well, this one can switch to 4 different types of firearm. Gattling and rifle, which you’ve seen. launcher, and shotgun. It’s a pretty versatile thing. There are other versions that do different things, but this one is my normal one. As you’ve noticed, this entire unit also has all of the required functions of a human arm, and it's waterproof to boot! But, it is still a machine, and an EMP will still disable it, and effectively disable me. As for the original question of what my secret is: I can modify the energy consumption of these devices. I still have to eat as a human, and these draw a bit off of the energy from that, which is why I’m always snacking. If for some reason I end up gaining wait, I can just increase the energy consumption a bit, and I’ll lose that weight over time. I can basically use this setup to manipulate my weight. Also, I can increase the device's output by increasing energy consumption, though it’ll make me tired. It’s kinda like an overdrive I suppose. Well, I’m gonna go take a shower. You have the heavy equipment evaluations today, right”?

“Yeah. About the shower… oh right, you did say those things were waterproof”.

“Yup, I can swim too. They also feel just like natural parts, so if my arm is grabbed or something, no one would notice. As far as the joins where these connect are concerned, they are hidden by optical camouflage, so I actually look completely normal. Mark and I are developing a unit that even changes color if I do so that I can ‘tan’ and ‘sunburn’. That would be something”!

“I wouldn’t really want to sunburn” Allison muttered.

“It’s not like it’ll actually hurt. I do get signals of things happening, so I know if my hand is sitting in a fire, but I can totally disable the pain reception, which is already really low anyway. I don’t like the idea of being less human than I already am though, so I tend to leave that at a low setting. I basically have an abnormal pain tolerance for those parts. Of course, the rest of me feels pain as normal”. I’m off to shower now”.

“You are one amazing person Ems”.

“I don’t really think so, but thanks. Everyone on this team has something amazing about them in one way or another. Compared to most of them, my ‘amazingness’ is just some robot parts. It can be built… and replaced”. Emilia frowned as she spoke, all the while, removing her pajamas.

“That’s not what I mean. I meant your attitude overall. I wouldn’t know what to do if… well, that’s another question… but I’ll ask another time if you’re willing to share…” Allison trailed off her sentence. A moment later, she was hit with duckie pajama bottoms as Emilia vanished into the bathroom.

“Alli…” Emilia called out from the bathroom. “Thanks”.

Allison smiled as she finished half the box of Twinkies and picked out something of Emilia’s to wear. She paused “Hmm, who changed the lightbulb”? Her eyes widened seconds later as she heard the girliest manly scream she’d ever heard. “I swear if that’s Conrad….” She got up and cautiously approached the newly replaced door.

. She opened the door, only to see a rather large and muscular man running down the hallway, pants not included.

“MARK, WHAHT THE HELL”?! Allison screamed.

“There was a spider on my pants”!

Emilia walked up beside Allison, wearing not much more than mark. She was standing there, wrapped in a towel. “What is going on here”?

“Well, apparently Mark is running around sans pants. He screamed something about a spider”.

“Oh, this again” Emilia sighed in a tired manner, summoning her arm gun as Mark ran around hysterically in circles.

“Don’t shoot him, what the fuck Ems”?!

“Relax, I’m changing ammo. This shift is a little slower…” As she said that, she switched to a form she saw a few minutes ago. Emilia took aim at Mark and fired. Mark fell to the ground moments later, bound by a net, He became silent seconds afterward.

“The fuck!? Allison glanced at the bound and pacified Mark. “What did you do to him”?

“Special launcher configuration. I shot him with a net, then fast-acting a tranquilizer. Help me drag him in here will ya”. Emilia ordered.

Mark’s bound and sedated body was pulled into their room, a sight that would most assuredly frighten those who were unfamiliar to the antics of team Lambda. Indeed, even Allison was frightened at the prospect of what might happen. “Ems, what are you planning to do with a pants-less, bound, and sedated man”?

Emilia returned her arm to its normal state and walked towards the wardrobe without actually giving much of an answer. She pulled out a knife and a pair of pajama bottoms that were far too large for her. She removed the net with a knife, and finally turned to Allison “I’m giving him some pants of course. Can’t have him running around pants-less. Also, had to calm him down, and there’s no way I’m approaching someone with that build in close combat”.

“I suppose you’re right, but didn’t Michelle say that he’s out of shape”?

Emilia nodded “Yes, she did, but does anything look out of shape about him? In either case, I had to calm him down. He’s going to be helping with your evaluations later, and we can’t have him crying about spiders during the evaluation”.

“Wait, wouldn’t he be groggy from the tranquilizer, assuming he even wakes up by then”?

“About that, grab the blue box from the wardrobe, and bring me one of the green rounds. Actually, bring me 2”. She’d finally finished dressing Mark’s lower half with the pajama bottoms

Allison raised an eyebrow but did as she was told, handing Emilia 2 of the requested rounds. Emilia opened her arm again, and loaded the green round in a different area, then she switched to the rifle configuration and made some unknown adjustments. “Oh, this should do”!

“Whoa, wait a minute! Isn’t that the same model rifle you used yesterday at the firing range? That’ll hurt like hell up close”! Allison placed herself between the still unconscious Mark, and Emilia, who was wrapped in a towel and wielding her arm-gun.

“Nope. I literally just changed the power output. Sadly, I have a setting for odd situations like this. It’ll be just a little stronger than getting a shot at the doctor”. She fired the shot into Mark's arm. “That was the reversal for the tranquilizer. He’ll wake up within 3 minutes. Might take 4, since he’s not a small .person”.

As Emilia stated, Mark woke up 4 minutes later, mostly alert. “What just happened? Why am I in Emilia’s room? Where did my pants go and where did these come from? Emilia, this is your doing isn’t it? Nice towel by the way”.

“Well, you were running around in a shirt and boxers crying about a spider on your pants. You freaked out Allison so I shot you with a net and tranquilizer. Then we drug you in here since dealing with this in the hallway would’ve been weird”.

Mark stood up and scratched his head. “Personally, I think 2 women dragging a half-naked, bound, and sedated man into a room would be weirder, and most assuredly cause for alarm”.

“And here you are, totally calm about it. Therefore, I see no problem” Emilia grinned.

“Well, I trust you well enough…” He then turned towards Allison, “… you on the other hand”.

“Well, given the situation, I can’t say I don’t understand your reasoning about the situation, but WHY don’t you trust me?! Ems is the one wearing nothing but a towel! Can’t I at least share in the mistrust with her”?!

“Well, I’ve known Emi for some number of years. I’ve known you for about a week. Need I explain more?” Mark replied.

“Yes! She’s wearing nothing but a towel, and she shot you! I did what most normal people would do and freaked the fuck out while clothed like a somewhat normal person! I don’t even…” Allison just stopped and shook her head. “So, I heard you’re gonna be helping out with my evaluations today”.

“Yup. Me, Emilia, and Michelle will be assisting you. I don’t think anyone else cares, but they may still show up to watch”. I’ll be making my final preparations after I leave here, so I’ll be ready within an hour”.

Emilia replied “Sounds good. Airfield 4 right, the really far away one”?

“Yup, see you later” Mark answered as he waved bye to the women and took his leave.

“So, evaluations at the ‘really far away’ airfield. Sounds good. I should probably start getting ready since I’ll have to go over the controls of whatever I’ll be using”. 

“That’s the most sensical thing I’ve heard anyone besides Michelle say in a long time”.

“Did you just make up a word? And did I just know what you meant regardless? In any case, I just thought it was common sense. This fact that it makes the most sense like that honestly scares me a bit”.

“Well, if that scares you, then the thought of Jesse behind the controls of a turret rocket launcher must not be very appealing..”

“OH HELL NO” Allison screamed. “Well, actually, most of you with heavy weapons would scare me… except for you…since ya know…”

“Good point. Jesse’s actually not that bad. In any case, we have a bit of a ride to the airfield. You’re driving… a tank. Since you apparently don’t have much experience driving those, we’ll just have to get you familiar with the basic operations. Get dressed. This time we won't be wearing pajamas” Emilia noted.

“Did you just tell me to get dressed when you’re wearing nothing but a towel?! Go take your shower already! Also, I still don’t have much of anything to wear… so….”

“You were already digging around in the wardrobe, seems you found something you liked. Though it’s not really suitable for a woman who’s about to jump in a tank. Let’s just switch out the skirt for some jeans and…“ Emilia tossed some clothes from the wardrobe. Allison was content with the choice as Emilia noted, and had no complaints. After each of them had a shower and got dressed, the pair headed to the “parking lot”.