Interactive study session

"Let's go home," you said, stretching your arms out. "Today had me rattled, I think let's take the bus, grab dinner at that deli on the corner, and we'll start on that research I guess."

Angel Five huffed a little, glancing at the sportbike cowling on the wall before nodding. She wanted to do some riding, but she's the one that wanted to do the research, so it's her fault for letting you choose! "Alright, but we're going to also practice some of that stuff for Sarge. That means you're going to have to test that neural link. Help me with the Endo? Let's swap out the Angel one for the basic frame."

Stepping over to a nearby bench, Angel Five took a seat with her back to you, tugging up the back of her shirt halfway. You followed behind, and tapped on your gauntlet to access the Angel controls, tapping the button to open the back port. Angel shivered as the seam in her back started to open. The seam was a Y-shape, with three panels that opened outward to show a lot of space inside her body. Amazingly, due to how the phase binder had been used on the body, the space inside Angel Five's body appeared larger than her exterior.

And that's a good thing, too, as you grabbed the release handle and began to pull out the frame. Angel shivered as you yanked out a roughly humanoid-shaped Endo module, one that was significantly larger than what should have fit in her without distorting her body. The frame's chest and stomach contained a large battery and massive electric motor, the left leg and arm contained shaft drives for a 2x2 drive system, with springs in the knees and hydraulics in the shoulders. All the electronics were contained in the Endo's head, creating a complete body shape that fit perfectly within an Angel's body.

Angel Five shivered as she felt her structural core vanish from her arms and legs. She slumped forward, her arms resting at her sides, barely able to stay upright at all. "That will never not feel weird... like, what's the opposite of an out-of-body experience? I really do feel so empty like this..."

"Won't be for long, one moment." You did have the benefit of some phasebound machinery inside yourself, but unlike the Angel hot-swappable modules, yours was based on the Meteor architecture and was meant to stay inside you even when disengaged from the outer armor. That did mean you had to charge your internal batteries every night with a cord plugged into your side, but at least you always had the hydraulic strength added to your own in order to carry the heavy Endo modules everywhere for your Angel. Putting the motorcycle Endo off to the side, you grabbed one that looked more like a stick figure when unfurled. At the moment however, the limbs curled up in an easy-to-carry manner around the central battery so it was easy to put in your Angel's back and let it unfold back into her arms, legs, and head.

With a deep breath, Angel Five stretched her arms out, once again feeling like she was whole again. Before you could tap the button to close up her back again, she looked over her shoulder. "Hey, don't forget to sync to it with your neural link."

You sighed, sliding through the options on your gauntlet until you reached the neural link configurator. You didn't want to play around with it, the idea of having extra responsibility with another person's body in an intense situation felt overwhelming, since any wrong moves would be your doing. Although, as the Sargeant pointed out, the inaction when the ability is available could be equally devastating.

Angel reached out and put her hand on your arm. "Hey, look, I think it's weird too. We'll make it fun, somehow. We'll put a blindfold on me and you'll guide me around the apartment with the link, alright?"

"And then who's going to do the research on nanobots?" you asked. Angel merely smiled, which gave you your answer: you'll be doing the research. "...Fine, maybe I can find something on audiobook or whatever. We only need to learn enough to help us figure out the right questions to ask for leads. I don't know what a nanobot might be useful for."

You tapped your gauntlet to the Endo in Angel Five's back, and it synced to your neural link in that moment, although you still kept control turned off for now. Once the panels on her back had closed up, Angel pulled her tank top down again and grabbed her street clothes, some jeans and a jacket, and you both headed out to catch the bus.

After the quick and uneventful trip home--with the quick stop at the deli for some sandwiches--you picked up the laptop from the table near the couch and sat down to at least search for some sort of video to explain nanotechnology to a clueless person. While you thought Angel would join you, she seemed to vanish for a moment into the bedroom, returning a couple moments later with a tie you rarely ever wore, sitting on the couch as she started to wrap it around her head.

"You really want to do that? I thought you were joking," you said as you glanced over for a moment, stopping your scrolling through the various videos that came up which mostly looked like conspiracy theories of the government controlling everyone with nanobots in coffee.

Since you couldn't see her eyeroll, Angel Five exaggerated a head movement and sighed loudly. "C'mon, I think it could be fun! Turn on one of the videos and then activate the link. Then you could make me do whatever, you know. You could have me feed your sandwich to you, or put together a puzzle, or something. Or, you know, I'm sure there is something way more fun you could make us do to get us in the mood for using this neural link more... I like the idea of not having to think about what I'm doing and just enjoy whatever the sensations are, if you get my drift..."

"You're comfortable with that?" you asked.

"No, dummy, I'm not comfortable with any of it because we've never done it! But the point is to get comfortable, which means for the rest of the night, you're my eyes and my controls."

As ideas started to flood into your mind, you realized you weren't even paying attention to the nanobot video in the least.