Peer Pressure

[Exo-1 Stryker]

Sydney tapped his fingers over the keyboard as he swiveled in his chair, looking at various folders on his screen, grumbling to himself over an earlier meeting where several researchers questioned his numbers with the suit. In the background, he ran a remote diagnostics on several of the suits systems. He looked over his shoulder at the pieces of his new suit, sliding his chair back and spinning around to come to a stop just in front of it.

His eyes narrowed as he looked between the suit and the computer hooked into it, he reached over into his backpack digging out a data stick, spinning it around in his fingers. It was something he had worked on off site, and hadn't exactly been run through the proper channels yet. Patience however had grown a little thin as he slide it into the port, opening the program and watching the status bar grow as he peered over his shoulder for anyone who might be watching.

"Lets see what you can do now" he said to himself as the program finished, initializing the start up sequence.

He stepped over in front of it, holding his arms out as a series of robotic arms lifted the armor onto him, locking it into place. The helmet being last, the face plate slid down over, locking with a compressed sound. There was a moment of darkness inside the suit before the heads up display kicked on, letting him see what was going on outside.

Numbers ran down the side just outside his field of vision as the suit came to life, responding to his movements as he examined the flexibility of his hand, extending and curling each of his fingers, causing him to grin as it accomplished it so fluidly, with nearly no lag between his commands and the suit.

"Alright, boot up program Stryker.exe"

There was a short pause, his HUD showing a status bar quickly loading, then a 3-D image of his suit rotating, with small "pings" coming off the hands and feet.

"The math is solid, what do you say we give this thing a test drive?" speaking to the on board computer.

Standing just over 7 feet tall now, the mechanical suit fluidly walked over to the door of the lab, pressing on the intercom. His voice normally unheard inside the suit, projected through a slightly robotic sounding filter. "This is Sydney Walker in Lab 8, I'm going to need an escort to leave the lab"

His excitement grew and his patience wore down fast as he waited for a familiar face to enter the lab. Soon enough, an older gentleman wrapped in a white lab coat with graying hair and a beard to match swiped his card entering the lab.

"Dr. Carden" Sydney grinned to himself, for what he had in mind.

"Hello Sydney, running through some more diagnostics? What can I do for you."

"Something like that. I'm trying to test the long range targeting system, and well.... this lab is a lot bigger than my garage back home, but it doesn't quite give me the range I'd like to test. So I was wondering if we could, you know. Head out to the top of the parking garage or something and get a few of things out there."

Dr. Carden furrowed his brow, looking over a clipboard. "I suppose it wouldn't be too much of an issue. Have you made any progress with the calibration of the thrusters and stabilizers?"

Sydney was glad he was hidden behind his helmet, because his grin was a very guilty one. "I've kind of given up on being able to fly for now. It'll be something I look into more down the road. Right now the controls are just too complicated to handle manually. Especially for any kind of sustained flight."

The two of them talked as they exited the lab, Sydney getting a more than a few looks as he walked through the halls suited up. There had been a small buzz about the suits design, power source, and weapon systems. All coming from a 17 year old kid. Seeing it up and running, functional as it was, did manage to impress some of the other researches, especially those working in robotics.

"I have discovered an interesting use for the stabilizers though, beyond flight. I'll have to show you the test results tomorrow."

Dr. Carden nodded to that as they stepped outside. "I'm anxious to see it. If you plan on taking your suit before the panel, I'll need you to fill out the form I emailed you on weapon system specifications, so I can review it first. I know what they'll be looking for."

Sydney took a few steps away from him, scanning the sky watching as his HUD filled with information off to the side. Identifying moving objects, their speed, distance away, zooming in on them for a clearer image of what they were. "Gotcha, yeah I'll have that done by Monday."

"How is the program you loaded to prioritize objects responding to such a wide scope?" Carden asked, penciling a few things down as they stood there.

"Seems to have removed a lot of the clutter, but you might want to stand back." Sydney grinned, taking a step away.

"Why is tha...." Dr. Carden was cut off as Sydney placed his hands at his sides, palms open facing down. Jets firing, launching him into the air with a force that managed to set off several nearby car alarms.

Forgetting his voice transmitter was still on, Sydney let out a loud "WOOOOOOOOO!" as he tore upwards into the sky leaving the Carden, the garage, and the lab far behind.

Through the rush of it all as he flew upwards, climbing higher and higher he managed to issue a command to save all the data from the first flight. "Lets see what this thing can really do!" He called out, soaring through the air, hitting another burst of speed as he blurred off towards the horizon. Climbing higher and faster he watched the city beneath him grow smaller and smaller, turning into a blanket of small glimmering lights.

The joy of the rush was short lived as his internal comm clicked on, it was a less than happy sounding Dr. Carden "Sydney Walker! Bring that suit back here this instant! You aren't cleared for flight tests yet!"

Sydney couldn't help but snicker. "I'm streaming you the data now and you can relax. I got this." With that, he whipped the suit into a blindingly fast barrel roll, testing out the programs ability to stabilize the suit during flight, coming out of it perfectly.

Watching the data stream in below, seeing the acrobatics, Sydney's ear was again filled with a louder voice. "That is NOT acceptable for an first test flight! One that you aren't even cleared for. Bring yourself down here this instant."

"If you say so Doc!" Sydney called out, adrenaline rushing through his body as he pulled a near impossibly sharp turn, identifying the spot he left as a way point and shooting himself down towards it like a bullet.

"Sydney, what are you doing! At that speed, you'll....!"

It was too late, Sydney dove down through the air towards the front lawn of the facility only picking up more speed. A small crowd of half a dozen people outside, watching some of the display after hearing the disturbance.

"Sydney, Pull up. Pull up!!!!!" Dr. Carden called out.

At the last second, Sydney turned himself out of a nose dive, firing his thrusters at full force, sending out a brilliant flash of energy and a small wave of force causing people to hold tight to whatever they had. Landing a little hard, but sticking it on one knee leaving a series of cracks in the concrete, Sydney stood up slow, looking around to the people who gathered. There was that moment of silence, before one of the younger researchers cheered.

"That was amazing!" Though not likely realizing how much trouble the young man was in at the time.

Sydney slid his face plate up, grinning ear to ear as a few approached him, asking a few questions about how fast he was going, how many G's he pulled, how did he manage to stabilize his flight patterns, etc etc. He opened his mouth to answer, but was cut off by his name being called out louder than over the comm. His shoulders instantly dropping, and the people who had watched him quickly realizing it was an unscheduled test.

He managed a half smile as he slowly walked over to Dr. Carden, leaving the onlookers with :

"Told you the math was solid."