Nathan smiled. “Your hair would be. It’s straight. For me, it’s actually easier this way. Without the extra gravity, it’d just poof up.” Sure, his hair was still curly, but it actually went down instead of out. Sure, he still had hair caught in his helmet all the time, but it was individual hairs instead of whole chunks. “Anyway, I should get going.”

“All right,” Eric said, hauling himself up and giving Nathan a kiss. “Love you.”

“Love you too,” Nathan said.

***

Nathan knocked on Ma’s front door. A few moments later, the door buzzed and clicked. He let himself in. “How are you, Ma?”

“Nate!” Ma wheeled herself over and reached up to bump cheeks with him. He obligingly bent over. “Mwah.” She settled back in. “I’ve been fine. Everything is good. Especially if you come to dinner Saturday night.”

“Smooth,” Nathan said. “Sure. I don’t have any other plans. Unless, of course, some supervillain decides to show up.” He shook his head. “That’s supervillains for you. No respect for the day of rest.”

“Or laws in general,” Ma said. “So, I made us breakfast. Hungry?”

They ate breakfast and then Ma took him to her workshop. “So, what’s the big surprise?” Nathan asked, following her in.

“I’ve been adapting a piece of gear from my original suit,” Ma said. “Very simple, but very useful against supervillains.” She held up a pronged… thing. It looked a little like an electric razor, but if it was meant for stabbing. Whatever it was, it could slot into his suit’s arm, since the arm had a revolving set of components. He normally kept the pulse gun active, since it was most useful.

“What is it?”

“It’s my old taser. I modified it so the electricity’s shielded from your hand. That and it can be activated with your power.”

“This sounds a bit dangerous,” Nathan said, eyeing it.

“No more so than the rest of your suit,” Ma said. “There aren’t any live wires by your hand, and you don’t get electrocuted by activating anything else. The electricity at the zapping end should be dealt with by your suit’s Faraday cage.”

“If you say so,” Nathan said. “I’m still testing this out at the doctor’s.”

“Perfectly reasonable,” Ma said. “Now, the other thing I wanted to show you…” She went to the other side of the room, where she pulled a sheet off of a humanoid figure. “Here we have the next generation of suits!”

Nathan looked it up and down. It was less bulky than his current suit: other than a more masculine cut, it looked more like Ma’s version of the suit, but in his teal and blue colors rather than her red-pink and orange. They also had his green carnation on the helmet and chest rather than her stylized violet. “So you cut down on the shielding?”

“A tiny bit, yes. The biggest difference is the streamlined flight pack and inertial dampeners.” Ma wheeled closer. “I was also able to add a couple more slots to the gun arm. Most importantly, though…” She picked up a nearby remote and hit the power button. The suit straightened up and took a few steps forward. “I made two. You can use one as a decoy, or make it come to you if you’re caught without it.”

“How’s it supposed to fly, though?” Nathan asked. “I mean, the flight pack only works if I power it. Without that, it’s just as grounded as you were.”

“You’re right. It can’t fly. But villains won’t know that. More importantly, if you ever need to appear somewhere as Nathan at the same time as Enmachina, you have an alibi.”

“And who’s gonna control it if I’m in civvies?” Nathan asked.

“Well…” Ma wheeled over to a computer. She pressed a button on the keyboard and the suit took another step forward. “I do have experience controlling a similar suit.”

“Is this just an excuse to get back out into the field without actually going outside?” Or having working legs, he thought but did not add.

Ma shrunk down into her chair. “Maybe.”

Well, it wasn’t like it would put her in any danger. And if she was this adamant, could he really stop her? That would just upset her, and without her, he couldn’t get new suit upgrades. “You know, I think that’s a great idea. I take it you have a way to keep anyone from tracking the signal here?”

She brightened up. “Yep. Basically, onion routing. Well, technically it’s garlic routing, but the same principle. Anyone looking for me would have to be able to analyze hundreds of connections simultaneously to find me. Assuming they can get past some of the more interesting codes I’ve set up in a few of the dead ends.”

“Then it sounds like a good plan. When will it be ready?”

“A month or so. I’m still dealing with some issues that need a wearer to resolve. We can get the taser installed immediately, though.”

“What’s the name of this series?” Nathan asked. She liked naming her creations.

“The Golem Series.” Ma looked very proud of herself for that.

“Maybe a little obvious, don’t you think?”

Ma shrugged. “First, who’s gonna know the name? Nobody, unless you tell them. Second, it’s been thoroughly absorbed into gentile culture, so even if they do know the name, they won’t figure out it’s specifically a Jewish thing. And third…” She frowned. “I don’t really have a third, but I do like the Rule of Three.”

“As long as you don’t cover it with the Shield of David, I guess.” He toyed with his own necklace, which had the same star on it, right next to the medical ID for his pacemaker. The pacemaker info was also etched into the suit, though, directly over his heart.

“Right. Now, let’s get your arm loaded.”

In the end, he left Ma’s house with the spare arm, taser included, carried in a gym bag. The suit was modular, so he could just replace the existing arm with the spare, and then that would become the new spare. It was a pretty elegant system.

He made it to the Corps HQ and headed straight for the staff area, waiting forever for the gate to open, and parked underground. There wasn’t an extra car down there; he would have thought Rainbright would bring her own. Though maybe she wasn’t cleared to park down here yet.

Finally, he made it back to his own quarters. As soon as the door opened, he caught a delicious smell, like baked bread. And cheese. And sauce and toppings.

“I’m back,” Nathan called.

Raph poked his head around the corner. “Just in time!” he said, coming in for a kiss. “I tried frying the mushrooms this time. Really hope they didn’t dry up.”

“I bet it’ll be delicious,” Nathan said, snuggling closer to Raph.

“Yeah, but the timer’s about to go off…” The timer went off. “Time.” Raph extricated himself and hurried off to the kitchen.

“I got it,” Nathan said. “I’ll serve.” He smiled as he cut the pizza. Back home, finally.