Jaune and the Real Girl.

Chapter 9

Jaune silently watched Pietro work. The old man peered through his spectacles as he fiddled with his tools making minor adjustments and tweaks Jaune wasn't even trying to understand the tiny circuits and motors of his new fingers.

The grey metal pinky and ring finger sat in front of the elderly man disassembled for him to see every minuscule wire and screw. Jaune looked at the metal caps on his fingers. He'd only received them yesterday after a short surgery installing them in preparation for his new prosthetic fingers.

"Do you still feel them?" Pietro asked, he didn't even glance away from his delicate work.

"Huh?" Jaune was pulled away from his thoughts and looked up at the old man as he worked.

"Your fingers, do you still feel them?" His voice was warm and he looked away from the little fragments of machinery to meet his eyes.

"Sometimes," Jaune admitted, "the doctors said it's called phantom pain, sometimes it feels like they itch and I can't scratch anything."

"Well hopefully these will help put an end to that," he said, grabbing a small length of copper wire. "You'll be able to feel through these, tactile surfaces at least, and temperatures. These pads in the fingers will send electrical signals so you will be able to feel through them."

"Is it like how Penny feels?" He asked looking around his workshop idly.

"More or less," Pietro explained. "Penny has extra sensory systems in her synthetic flesh so she has more data being sent to her brain. But you also have experience with touch and feel different than Penny, your brain will interpret the sensation differently because of it. Like how your brain knows what itchy fingers feels like; it'll probably feel familiar over time."

"Can they feel pain?" He asked.

"Yes, if they experience heat or pressure or a surface capable of causing harm you'll experience pain." He explained to him as he installed the wire into one of the tiny motors.

"Do you mind if I ask you a question?" He said awkwardly.

Pietro chuckled, "we'll you've already asked a couple, you might as well keep going."

"Well uh... why did you design Penny to feel pain?" He asked tentatively. "I mean... wouldn't she be a more effective fighter if she couldn't feel any pain?"

Pietro chuckled. "You know General Ironwood asked me that once?"

"What did you tell him?" Jaune asked.

"Well... what is pain?" He said picking in a screw with a pair of tweezers installing it with a thin screw.

"Uh... it is when you physically hurt?" Jaune knew his answer was lame. This felt like when Penny would ask him to describe how something tastes or how some kind of natural sensation felt to him leaving him rather stumped. She hadn't asked him anything like that since they were back in that abandoned home huddling in front of the fire.

Pietro laughed. "Ironwood didn't exactly have an answer either," he assured him. "Pain is the body registering damage," he explained. "Or potential damage, it's a signal in our brain that something is wrong and we act to avoid it. Penny too is able to sense damage or the threat of it and work to avoid it. A soldier that is careless about getting injured or risks injury unnecessarily won't be fighting for very long will he?"

"So that's why you programmed her to feel pain? So she could be a more effective fighter?" Jaune asked his brow furrowing as he watched Pietro assemble the two fingers. He knew every piece and it's precise position like an expert watchmaker knowing every gear and spring in a pocket watch.