Upgrades

[the_enemy_ace]

WHO: Agatha Heterodyne and Hans Von Hammer
WHERE: His new hidden hangar and living quarters
WHEN: Wednesday night
WARNINGS: N/A
SUMMARY: Von Hammer's Me262 needs some upgrades. He turns to the best, and most trustworthy, genius he knows...
FORMAT: Paragraph, or whatever.

Comments

Yay!

[theheterodyne]

Agatha smiled brightly at Hans as she exited the coffee shop, pausing for a moment to hum softly at the door-robot, which responded with the soft click of the deadbolt. A large duffel bag full of tools was slung over her shoulder, and she had a rolling case with parts to go into the trunk. Yesss, upgrades.

"I'm pleased to see you too, Hans. It's been awhile. We really ought to get together more often, don't you think?" She couldn't quite decide whether she liked him in or out of uniform better. Not being from this world, she didn't have any bias regarding his involvement with WW2, so perhaps she was more open to him than many would be.

"How are you? I can't wait to get started."

[the_enemy_ace]

He took the bag, putting it in the trunk. It had a healthy weight to it, as did the rolling case.

"We certainly should. I could do with human company, I find. And you certainly come equipped."

He closed the trunk, straightening his tie.

"I am well...and I think you come in a state of perpetual eagerness. I hope you have been well?"

He moved to the passenger side, holding her door open for her. Old guard manners died very hard.

x.x sorry

[theheterodyne]

"If what I've brought isn't enough, I can always head back for more." She really was a bit concerned about not having what she needed, but it wouldn't take long to visit her shop for a resupply at any rate.

His manners made her smile. She didn't comment on them, but smiled brightly as she seated herself.

"I've been quite well, thank you."

[the_enemy_ace]

He slid into the driver's seat, taking her on a winding course through the city.

"I do apologize for all of this. But I'd prefer the enemies I make do not know you are involved. I know, I know, you can take care of yourself - but the fewer chances we take, the better."

[theheterodyne]

Agatha had definitely come to enjoy a nice drive through the City since her arrival, especially after learning the inner workings of automobiles.

"I understand completely, and I'd do the same if our situations were reversed. I've already had one friend die because of me, and I'd prefer to avoid it ever happening again."

[the_enemy_ace]

He is silent for a long moment. The number of absent friends he recalls makes up a long list indeed. The ones he failed to protect, lost in flames and plummeting to the earth. Too many, too many. But he isn't the sort to let it stop him.

"It seems we must all pay a price, if our lives are those led dangerously."

He turns a corner, pulling up to what looks like an ancient hangar, fenced off from the street. It is in an area surrounding by buildings. Camoflagued, as it were, by being in plain sight. He opens the trunk, taking out her tools.

"I think my first training plane weighed less than your tools," he says, making a show of picking them up, hopefully to bring the conversation back to somewhere better.

[theheterodyne]

And neither is she.

"Is that so? What sort of propulsion systems did it have?" Well, the subject was successfully changed to a happy one. Anything to do with airplanes and engines could catch her interest for hours.

Agatha followed him into the hangar.

[the_enemy_ace]

"Actually, it was a glider. Back then, engines were so rare, they were the only way to train more than a handful at any given time. Frankly, it is a wonder we didn't manage to crash them daily."

He'd made a home of the place, as much as a hangar could ever be a home. About a third was partitioned off, filled with bits of furniture and chairs, things he had managed to find or scavenge. There was, thankfully, a working kitchen.

But what undoubtedly would catch her attention was the red Messerschmitt Me262, sitting shark-like near the hangar doors.

[theheterodyne]

"Ooooooh, a glider. I haven't had much chance to work with them before. How do you get into the air?"

She gave the hangar a once-over, thinking that she really ought to give him a housewarming present of some sort, before her attention was completely grabbed by the plane. Oh, such a lovely thing it was.

The temptation to just go over and touch it was simply too much. So she did.

[the_enemy_ace]

"Usually? We just ran it off a hill. If we were lucky, there was a car."

He put his hands in his pockets for a moment as he watched her with the plane.

"She is magnificent. A truly beautiful machine. I often wondered if she would be the last beautiful airplane. Everything else they were designing was built entirely for speed, with no thought to how they handled."

[theheterodyne]

"Oh dear. That must've been..exhilarating, wasn't it?" She laughed, thinking of her first flight in Gil's little machine as they nearly fell to their deaths from Castle Wulfenbach.

"She truly is. If I remember the City when I eventually get sent back, I think I'm going to have to use her design in building my own. We have airships and dirigibles and the like, but nothing like this."

[the_enemy_ace]

"Flight always is. Unfortunately, humanity polluted the air with killing. There is something pure about a glider. The closest we get to being a bird, and rightly so."

He steps closer to her, ducking under the wing to open an engine cowling.

"Dirigibles were something of a German speciality once. Good machines, if you can get helium. But this..."

He points at the innards. And she will, he's quite sure, love studying the turbine technology.

"well, they are reliable but the mechanical strain is enormous. We had to replace half the engine every half-dozen flights. Less, if there was combat damage."

[theheterodyne]

"I've been thinking of building something using Da Vinci's designs. He was amazing! Very much like Van Rijn back home - oh, if only I'd been able to copy all of his notes and bring them with me!" And she was off, rambling a bit about Van Rijn and how even after hundreds of years, nobody could reproduce his works, or even fix the existing ones.

But oh, dirigibles.

"Dirigibles are the preferred air travel mode above land back home. Castle Wulfenbach is the size of a city in itself, and never lands."

She paused, thinking regarding the replacement idea.

"I'm sure I can clear up that issue, no problem."

[the_enemy_ace]

A flying castle? Incredible. Though he'd hate to have to work on the engines. And the fuelling alone...it'd be like coalling a battleship, wouldn't it?

"I saw quite a few in my day. Nothing as impressive as that, mind you."

He moves out of her way, so she can dig into the engine if she'd like.

"The Jumo is durable, though. But what I really need is something for detection. They were working on air-to-air guided missiles when the war ended...I am sure the technology has advanced greatly since then. This plane can outmaneuver them, I am sure of that...but I would need to know they were launched."

[theheterodyne]

"Ah, you want modern computer and surveillance systems? I can certainly do that! I expect you'll want the infrared type ones too, won't you?"

Oh yes, engine access please! Agatha took the invitation promptly and happily.

"Though I might need to head back for more parts later."

[Apologies for the vast delay.]

[the_enemy_ace]

"Would I? I have never needed infrared before." He watched her head towards the engine like a hawk after its prey. He couldn't prevent a smile from coming to his face.

"Indeed, well, I will not mind transporting you. In the meantime..."

She'll be at it immediately, won't she?

"Perhaps I should put some tea on?"