#gadgette

Specs didn't expect to ever meet anybody else with a metal arm... who wasn't some mad scientist like him or some goody-two-shoes wannabe tech hero. However one afternoon while he was incognito (meaning he was just wearing a long sleeved sweater and a flimsy face mask), while he was at a normal appliances store when he was reaching for some mechanical oil, the last one on the shelf, his hand collided with another person's. With how tired he was of dealing with grumpy clients and Imp's normal chaos, Specs wasn't above slapping the other hand away but paused upon staring at the stranger. She was probably about the same height and was wearing a green shirt, green eyes, had ginger hair, and was wearing black overalls.

But the main thing he was interested in was her arm. Unlike his it was an obvious attachment with metallic accents and even though he was sure they functioned similarly, it was a stark contrast to his own. Which blended in with his skin and only the seams in his arm could be seen under the light or a very keen eye. A keen eye which this stranger seemed to have as she also took an interest in it as well.

"Nice arm." She stated, her hand not loosening on the oil can. "You made it yourself?"

"Indeed I did. I assume the same is true for yours as well?" Specs asked, also not loosening his grip.

"Yep! I'm Gadgette by the way."

"Specs."

And thus this odd friendship was born between the two afterwards. Both had exchanged information and agreed to meet up due to sharing common interests in invention and mechanical work. But in the end it was Gadgette who walked away with the oil (no Specs is not still salty about that). Now the two were in Specs' lab both working on separate projects.

Normally Specs would never invite someone he just met last week into his "secret" laboratory, but finding someone who shares the same passion... as well as sharing a metal arm is hard to find. Also, Imp kept bothering him about making more friends outside of his villain work so he digressed. He didn't push about the reasoning behind Gadgette's arm and she didn't push about his. He also didn't tell her about his "job" being an inventor/scientist for other villains. It was just nice to have some form of connection outside of that work.

"Pass me that screwdriver please." Gadgette asked, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Of course, here." Specs replied, handing her the green screwdriver across from him. "Do you need help with what you're working on currently?"

Gadgette, who was currently adjusting something on her arm looked up and shook her head.

"No, just recalibrating some things on my arm is all."

"I see, would you mind if I watched... I'm curious to how your arm differs from my own."

After getting a nod from the other inventor, Specs scooted closer and watched as she worked on her arm. Using the screwdriver she twisted off a few small panels and fixed some wiring inside. The wiring inside of her arm differed from the wiring inside his own, but not drastically, he assumed it was because their arms both performed different functions. And while Specs choose a more sleek design for his arm he could see the appeal of having a more obvious mechanical prosthetic. However, upon closer inspection he saw a black band attached around the wrist that seemed to be able to unclip.

"What's that black band for?" He asked, pointing at it with his normal hand.

"Oh, this is place attachments where my hand would normally go. I can unscrew it by the band and place on... um... let's see, a blowtorch, a small circular saw, a drill, and a buffer pad so far." Gadgette explained allowing Specs to see her arm more clearly. "Does your hand also detach or only serve a singular function?"

Specs grinned at the chance to show off.

"Actually my arm can serve a multitude of functions. Though, unlike yours I have some hidden panels inside that can swap out with my hand." To prove this, Specs's hand collapsed on itself and went inside the arm cavity and then out popped a nozzle that spat out a small flame.

"That's quite impressive." Gadgette complimented, only further boosting his ego.

"It is isn't it. It's much more efficient and compact and one wouldn't need to waste time switching out parts so often." Specs couldn't resist that small dig at Gadgette's arm. "If you wanted to I could easily install my own unique upgrades on your arm. Maybe even help make it less... uh noticeable as well."

"Thank you for the offer but I enjoy my arm the way it is right now." Gadgette replied, obviously noticing the small dig at her expense. "Besides sometimes overcomplicating things isn't the best way to go."

"Maybe so, but you have to admit my arm saves time and the headache." Specs rebutted. "It's simply much more efficient."

"Are you trying to insinuate your arm is better than mine?"

"Of course not..." Specs defended, but the smirk didn't leave his face as he turned back to his own arm. "I'm just saying mine is more time and energy savvy... and that yours is also a little slow."

He muttered that last part and turned back to arm and started rebooting it. Which is something he had to do in order to make sure all the parts were working correctly. This would put his arm out of commission for about fifteen minutes. During this he didn't notice the silhouette sneaking up behind him until-

"Take it back!" Gadgette exclaimed, digger her non-mechanical fingers into Specs' side.

"Gah!"

Specs yelped and twisted to the side before bursting into giggles as she started wriggling her fingers against him.

"Hehehey! Stahahahap!" He squirmed in his seat and tried batting at her hand with his own while his mechanical arm was on the table still rebooting.

"Not until you take back what you said about my arm being slow." She argued as she switched to softly pinching at his hips.

"EEEH! Nohohoho! It's the truhuhuhuth!" Specs refused to budge on this and if he died a tickly death on this hill then so be it. "Mihihihine is behehetter and yours is prihihihimitive!"

Gadgette let out a false offended gasp at that and pretended to place her hand over her heart.

"How dare you! I'll show you primitive!" And with that she revealed her mechanical arm which was hiding behind her back and had the buffer attachment on where her hand would've been.

"Wahahahait... whahahait nohohohohoho!" Specs begged and twisted, unable to move much thanks to his mechanical arm being dead weight.

The moment the buffer pad started rubbing against his hip he shrieked and curled in on himself after all else failed.

"PLEHEHEHEHEHEHEASE! STAHAHAHAHAHAHAP!" Specs screeched.

"Admit my arm is the superior one and then I'll stop." Gadgette said and Specs shook his head.

"NEHEHEHEHEVER!"

"Suit yourself."

The buffer bad then began to spit and she started dragging it up and down his torso and stomach. Specs squealed again and fell into silent laughter, tears gathering at the corner of his eyes and his face going a bright shade of red. His glasses became askew with all the thrashing and his arm was still rebooting so he couldn't move from his chair and could only sit there and take it. His pride was on the line here but bit by bit he was slowly breaking down. The second the spinning brush rounded back to his hip however...

"OKHAHAHAHAHAY! OKHAHAHAHAHAY! YOUR AHAHAHARM IS BEHEHEHEHETTER! IT'S BEHEHEHEHTTER!" He screeched out, resorting to kicking now. "PLEHEHEHEHEASE! MEHEHEHEHERCY! MEHEHEHEHERCY!"

Finally after a few more seconds, Gadgette stopped and pulled the buffer pad away while smiling victoriously.

"See, was that so hard?" She teased and Specs could only groan in response as he wiped his eyes.

"That was mehehean... and underhanded." Specs huffed. "No pun intended."

Gadgette chuckled as she replaced the metal hand on her hand by unscrewing the black band.

"We should do this again sometime." Gadgette said and paused when she saw Specs' horrified expression. "The tinkering together... not the tickling. Well, unless you make another dig at my arm being inferior again."

"Yes, I suppose that'd be acceptable." Specs replied, fixing his glasses and reaching for a bottle of water after his arm chimed to reveal it was done rebooting. "We should do this again sometime."

Imp was right about one thing. It was nice to have a friend outside of work. Though in the future Specs would be sure to keep the snarky comments and his ego in check.