Family Ties

Part 54

"Ray! Hey Ray!" Eric called in a loud whisper from the wide doors overlooking the green expanse of sloping lawns. They'd finally found time to stay over at Damon's for the weekend and were sitting outside enjoying the last bit of sun for the day.

"If you make me get up for nothing, I'm gonna be right pissed." Raymond groaned as he got up, then locked eyes with Skye.

"Missed, I'm gonna be missed out here if I had to go." He quickly made up on the spot, his face flushing at being caught. Skye looked at him calculatingly for a few seconds before opening his mouth.

"No, no, no, no, no.... Raymond forestalled him with his hands out, hoping to shut him up.

"Grandma!" He called while calmly looking at his dad. "Papa said pissed!" He called out even louder.

"Raymond!!" He could hear his mom angrily fast approaching, probably with a rolling pin in hand to beat him.

"Why you little..." He reached out to try and grab Skye, who laughed and jumped out of his way.

"Ray, come on, stop pissing about!" Eric called again from the doors, waiting for him to make a move.

"You may have won this round." He frowned, while turning to sprint toward Eric, just as his mother came into view.

"Skye's getting really good at playing that game," Eric observed with a chuckle at how Raymond was outsmarted. "He got you cornered really fast."

"I hope you didn't get me into trouble simply to tell me that!" He followed Eric down to the basement that had been overhauled into a gleaming workshop. No matter how messy and chaotic Eric could be, his workshops always looked like you could eat off every surface, with nothing out of place.

"You're becoming a real smart ass now that you have a man to warm your bed." He smirked, waiving Raymond over to a stand. "Come over here, I have something really cool to show you."

"What do you think?" He gestured toward what looked like a diving suit hanging from a hook.

"It's a diving suit. I'm not sure if Kelley's going to be okay with you going out and having a good time." He frowned at the suit, reaching out to touch it, surprised at how light it felt.

"To you maybe, but I've spent nearly three years developing this! It's a prototype to test for military applications."

"They cancelled the project, but you went and did it anyway?"

"Something to that effect." He grinned.

"So, what does it do, besides make one hell of a fashion statement?"

"I'm not going to bore you with the details, but this is a new combat skin that I've been dying to try out."

"So why are you building it in the basement and not at the hangar?" He asked suspiciously. Eric was a brilliant engineer that had a knack for making the impossible, possible.

"I didn't build it here! Jeez, you're dumb!" He snapped. "I brought it so that you can try it out for me." He looked at Raymond excitedly, removing the garment from the rack. "They guys thought you might get a kick out of it."

"Why would I want to try a wet suit when there's no water in sight?" He yanked himself free from Eric who was now trying to take off his t-shirt. "Hey, what gives with trying to get me clothes off? You're not even going to buy me dinner?" He mocked Eric.

"Shut it you brainless turd. Come over here and put this on!" He yanked at Raymond again. "Come on Ray, this is the first of its kind and you get to be the first to put it to the test!" He hastily stepped forward to grab at Raymond's t-shirt again.

"Okay, okay." He yanked himself loose again, starting to strip down. "I'm not taking my boxers off if it's that kind of suit."

"Please keep them on, I don't want to have to explain skid marks to the rest of the team." He laughed.

With a grimace, Raymond proceeded to slip into the suit. He was expecting it to be difficult to get into it, but it seemed to stretch around him, like a second skin, allowing him free movement without adding extra weight. Once he had it zipped up, he slowly moved around to test his range of motion, but it didn't seem to interfere at all.

When he turned to Eric, with a wide grin, he jumped back in surprise.

"Eric! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" He asked in shock, seeing a gun in Eric's hand.

"I'm going to do what I've always wanted since we were in high school!" He aimed the gun at Raymond's chest and fired four shots in quick succession. Their sound was dampened by a silencer.

Raymond was on the floor grunting in pain, on his hands and knees. He looked at the bullets that were laying around him in shock. How was he alive after being shot four times?

"What the fuck Eric! You could have killed me. And you were using live rounds? Are you out of your damn nut?" He got up, looking down at his chest, he noticed the scorch marks where the bullets had hit him.

"It's a combat suit that we call God."

"You called this thing God? What, did you run out of good names?" He snorted, looking at himself in the suit.

"Jesus, you're the worst! No, it's called God, because it can stop virtually any bullet or blade and it has a smart sensor system integrated. Look here." He stabbed Raymond with a knife with all his force, but nothing happened, except the blade glancing off the suit.

"It learns while you move and tracks your heart rate, breathing, breaks or injuries. All that info is then used to protect your squishy outside bits from attack. Here, let me show you." He grabbed a baseball bat and slammed it across Raymond's chest, snapping it in two.

"Whoa! I almost didn't feel a thing. Are you for real?" He looked at the suit in amazement. The blow had stung and he was sure he was going to have some nasty bruises, but other than that, for something that didn't feel that special, it did a great job.

"Don't think it's infallible," Eric warned. "If it gets hit repeatedly in one spot or a grenade is launched at you, it could damage the network responsible for keeping you safe. And when the system fails, then you're just wearing a wet suit worth seven million."

"So why me and not the military?"

"They don't have the money to spend on it, but it's still a great idea. We need to find a way to make it cheaper, but in the meantime, I thought the Inquisitor could take it for a test run." He clapped Raymond's shoulder.

"Fair enough." He agreed, taking the suit off. "But isn't there something to protect my neck and head?"

"You're not fucking Iron Man, you moron." Eric threw at him disparagingly. "And I'm not rich enough to afford another centimetre of that material. So be grateful that I even thought of you."

"Okay, okay. Jeez, you're really touchy about this." He grinned at Eric. "Thanks for the gift, I'll be sure to put it to good use. Now, what else do you have to show me?" He knew Eric well enough that he would have tinkered on small projects to help him with his investigations.

From the start, when he worked in the field, he realised that getting the information or results he wanted, wasn't as easy as simply asking. He needed them to give him what he wanted on his terms and not theirs, and for that reason, he needed to find a way to keep them in check while doing his investigations and to cooperate with him.

Creating the Inquisitor was Eric's idea. Donning the mask, dark suit and voice modulator felt strange at first and he was overly self-conscious of it, but he soon realised allowed him to move around freely, while it seemed to scare the living daylights out of everybody.

Eric was also the genius behind his calling cards. Between him and his team, they've created quite a few gadgets and have helped him on quite a few projects in the past to make sure that the awful reputation of the Inquisitor remained in place. He was sure that they were living out their comic book dreams through him.