Fixing Up A Car Turned Girl (backdated)

[clockwork_doc]

After meeting up with Clark in the Nexus, Doc's been getting things ready for him to come over and help him and Marty with the repairs on Dee's car form. He's been putting this off for far too long, thanks to some anxieties about what exactly Dee feels, and whether it's even right for him to do anything to her. Dee's assured him about fifty million times that she feels no pain, though, and she really wants to be fixed. And having Marty around now makes things rather easier than before. End result -- he's finally ready to get Dee back to full functioning condition -- or, at least, as close as they can get.

Finally, three days after Clark appeared, everything's set up. Tools and parts are in orderly piles in the parking lot, as are Dee, Marty, and Doc. "We all set, Doc?" Marty asks, looking around.

"I believe we are," Doc says, going over his mental checklist. "Dee? Anything missing that you can see?"

"Nope!" Dee bounces happily on her heels. This is gonna be fun! "Go ahead and call, Dad!"

"Okay!" Doc goes ahead and sends a text message to Clark's PINpoint: Clark -- it's me, Doc. We're all ready to get to work if you are. Let me know if you're in a position to come over.

Comments

[kalel-ofkrypton.livejournal.com]

"Not specifically, no. I go for a fly every day. It's actually really therapeutic." Clark, in actuality, is seeing a therapist at the Nexus, someone he can talk to completely openly without worrying about being committed or locked away and experimented on. But he doesn't really talk about it to most other people, due to the associated connotations of needing such a thing.

He gives Dee an almost absentminded pat on the hood. "Yeah, after what happened to the gas tank, you'd think it would've shaken it loose or something at the least."

[clockwork-doc.livejournal.com]

"Therapeutic?" Marty repeats, looking a little puzzled. "If I could fly, I'd go every day just because it was so awesome."

"It is pretty amazing," Doc says. "Though you do have to watch out for aerial hazards. Particularly airborne bugs." He grimaces. "They don't exactly taste good."

"Ewww," Marty says, soured slightly on this whole flying thing.

"I was thinking more the vacuum tubes cracking from the severe vibration," Doc says, moving to unstrap it from said hood. "Then again, perhaps Zemeckis and Gale considered that there was only so much they could do to our movie selves."

[kalel-ofkrypton.livejournal.com]

"I usually fly high enough that I only have to watch out for airplanes and the occasional goose," Clark says, shaking his head with a smile. "What I meant is... when you're up there, looking down at the world, it's like... nothing else matters. You're just flying, and the world is so small but you can truly see how huge it is. There are no problems, no worries, just the sky and the Earth."

Clark squints a little at the device, looking through it with x-ray vision to see where it attaches electronically, and clears the wires connecting the assembly to the time circuit inputs inside.

[clockwork-doc.livejournal.com]

"It must be pretty wild," Marty says, smiling again.

"Peaceful, too -- except when you run into the geese," Doc jokes. He undoes the regular straps as Clark takes care of the wires, and after a moment, the vacuum tube "chip" is off. Doc carefully sets it aside, then examines the parts. "All right," he says, opening the car door and looking inside. "Now we just have to get the microchip installed, and then the rest should be just shoring up the older wires and such. Oh, and seeing if we can get the flight system online." Dee happily honks her horn. "Don't get too excited -- remember, those parts are from 2015!"

[kalel-ofkrypton.livejournal.com]

Clark's still in x-ray vision mode, and he looks carefully at her internal wiring to see what's been burned out by the lightning strike that ruined the flying circuits. "It looks pretty bad. The flying circuits, I mean." He kneels down and touches the rim of a tire. "The regular alignment looks fine but the part that rotates the tires up looks fused, too. It can probably be fixed but it might take new parts."

[museicalmarty.livejournal.com]

Dee lets out a distinctly sad-sounding rumble of the engine. "We'll fix what we can," Doc assures her. "And who knows -- with the Nexus, maybe I can find some of the other parts we might need."

Marty watches Clark as Clark examines Dee's internals. "I'd say it must be weird, being able to see into stuff, but maybe you're used to it by now," he says. "A lot of the guys I knew thought X-ray vision would be the coolest, but I always got to thinking of the doctor's office when I heard the name. I thought, I'd try to see under somebody's clothes, and suddenly they'd just be a skeleton. Which would be creepy." Pause. "That ever happen to you?"

[kalel-ofkrypton.livejournal.com]

"We can fix the time circuits, so if all else fails you can go ahead to 2015 and go to a repair shop there," he suggests. "I mean, they probably do that sort of thing all the time, right?"

Clark looks up when Marty speaks, and blinks back into normal sight. "Well... sort of. On accident. It first started in freshman year of high school. I'd just be sitting there and then I'd get an intense headache, and suddenly I'd be looking through things. It's not just like a black and white x-ray either, sometimes it was just under the skin so I'd see muscles and stuff. And sometimes it was just walls, like in, uh, gym class."

[clockwork-doc.livejournal.com]

"Probably, but actually time traveling in this world is going to be the tricky bit," Doc says, mentally prepping himself for the actual "taking stuff apart" bit. "It was a time travel test that brought Dee here. I don't want to try going anywhere else and find I've gone through yet another portal between realities."

"Yeah, let's avoid that by all means possible," Marty says, looking seriously spooked by the possibility of losing his best friend again. Turning to Clark, he grimaces in sympathy. "Ouch. That must have been pretty damn freaky." Seriously, why do people think X-ray vision is cool again?

[kalel-ofkrypton.livejournal.com]

"Agreed," Clark adds with a nod. "If nothing else, you can probably find parts in the Nexus if you can't get them anywhere else."

"Well..." He looks a little sheepish. "The wall incident happened when I was, ah, facing the girl's locker room."

[clockwork-doc.livejournal.com]

Dee revs her engine, sounding happier at this prospect. Doc pats her steering wheel. "Don't worry, Dee. We'll figure this out somehow."

Marty can't help a snort of laughter as Clark reveals that little tidbit. "Oh man. Everybody must have wondered why the hell you had that look on your face," he says.

"Aren't uncontrollable powers fun?" Doc says, sarcasm mixed with sympathy in his voice. "I remember just how many times I got rained on when I was first getting a handle on the weather control."

[kalel-ofkrypton.livejournal.com]

"If you want to start working on the time circuits, I can try to fix what I can of the flying circuits," Clark offers. It'll probably be the more... take-apart-y part of the job.

"Fortunately they thought I hit my head," he says with a laugh. "So it didn't take too much explaining." He looks even more awkward when Doc mentions his own uncontrollable powers. "Um. Yeah. Remind me sometime to tell you about how my heat vision started."

[clockwork-doc.livejournal.com]

Doc considers that for a moment. "Sounds good to me," he says finally. "Though if you need help, don't hesitate to ask." Not that Doc knows any more about this than Clark, but he is the more experienced one.

"Lucky," Marty says, still looking rather amused. "How horribly embarrassing is that story?"

[kalel-ofkrypton.livejournal.com]

He nods, and locates the tools and parts he'll need, based on what he saw via x-ray vision. "When it's time to try to fix the tire mechanism, we'll need her up on a jack, but she's fine how she is for right now."

"Let's just say it was... hormonally linked. And I was fifteen," he says, as mildly as he can manage.

[clockwork-doc.livejournal.com]

"Good." Doc gets his own tools, hesitates a moment, then takes a deep breath and starts disassembling the parts he needs to get the microchip properly installed. Dee rumbles her engine at him, letting him know she's okay.

"Ooooh," Marty says, wincing. "I think I know where that's going. That's gotta suck."

"Fifteen is a particularly awkward age for -- self-discovery -- even without superpowers," Doc agrees with a shiver.

[kalel-ofkrypton.livejournal.com]

Clark begins working on stripping out the burned-out wiring to start with, keeping an ear on Doc in case it gets to be too much for him. Although he's sure Marty would be on that first, probably.

"I actually ended up getting arrested for arson," he agrees. "But since I was a minor, and no one saw me do it, and it was my first offense, they let me off with a warning. I kinda had to set fire to the jail though."

[museicalmarty.livejournal.com]

Marty would indeed -- he's keeping a close eye on his best friend for signs of trouble. So far, Doc seems to be doing okay, though his expression is perhaps more serious than the situation warrants.

"Arson? Seriously? And you--" Marty shakes his head. "You know, it's shit like that that makes me think me not using my own powers is the right idea." Yeah, Marty got a few superpowers from Fae. As he's hinted here, though, he doesn't really make use of them. Too many bad memories for one, and -- well, Clark just summed up another good reason.

[kalel-ofkrypton.livejournal.com]

Clark's quiet for a moment, working wire by wire before moving onto larger components, rebuilding it as he goes, as best he can. "I tried living like that once. Not using my powers, I mean. A couple of times I didn't have them at all for a brief while. But... I couldn't stop myself from helping people. It's part of what got me killed. I felt obligated, like that's the whole point of having powers in the first place. I can't stand by and not help, if I can." He looks up at Marty. "I'm not saying everyone should. That's just how I feel about it."

[museicalmarty.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, but it's easier when you have powers that really can help people, and that you had from -- maybe not the start, but for a while," Marty says. "My stuff -- I can make myself sound amazing on stage which, while pretty awesome, doesn't really help anybody much. And the only one one I've got a handle on makes somebody think I'm somebody in charge of them somehow. Maybe good for getting somebody off a friend's back, but. . . ." He grimaces. "And remembering where I got them is -- well, you know a little about that. I'm all for helping people out, but I dunno if I'm superhero material."

[kalel-ofkrypton.livejournal.com]

"It doesn't mean you have to go out and stop muggings or supervillains, necessarily. That other power, the Jedi mind trick kind of thing, that could be really helpful when it comes to trying to get information. And never underestimate the power of raising morale." He shrugs a little. "Some of my best friends are as human as they come, and they're some of the best backup I've ever had. One of them works as an actual superhero."

[clockwork-doc.livejournal.com]

"He's definitely got a point there," Doc says, pausing in his work. "Both in gathering information and keeping morale up. God knows people could definitely use more of the latter in times of stress. Not trying to force you into anything, understand -- just know it's an option."

"Yeah, okay," Marty allows. "I'll keep it in mind. Won't do me much good around here, but if some shit goes down in the Nexus or somewhere. . . ." There's a brief internal guilt attack as he suddenly wonders if he could have successfully used the "mind trick" power on the King of Hearts. Then again, who knows if he would have had the presence of mind to do anything like that. Clark's last statement, however, gets a look of surprise. "Really?"

[kalel-ofkrypton.livejournal.com]

He nods with a smile. "Yeah. Victor Allen, also known as Doc." The irony does not escape him here, and he gives a slightly apologetic glance at this Doc. "She's been doing the hero thing for years now, actually. And her husband, who is also a hundred percent ordinary human."

[clockwork-doc.livejournal.com]

Doc laughs a little. "So she's got either the same name as our Victor or the same name as me. That's something you wouldn't expect even out of the Nexus."

"That's pretty cool," Marty says, though he looks slightly puzzled. "Though -- Victor? Not Victoria?" Dee adds her own questioning honk.

[kalel-ofkrypton.livejournal.com]

Clark shrugs, and pulls out another component of the flying circuits, turning it over in his hands to see how bad the damage is. "It's her name. Sometimes she goes by Vic, though. If that helps make things less confusing."

His pupils contract as he stares at the circuit, almost like a bionic eye might, examining it on a microscopic level. Then a short burst of pinpoint-accurate heat vision to solder a few connections, and he slots it back in.

[clockwork-doc.livejournal.com]

"Just wondering -- you don't see many women going by Victor," Marty says with a shrug.

Doc watches as Clark does his heat vision thing. "Now that I could see being useful," he says approvingly. "Make certain repairs a lot easier."

"Hey, don't you still have the ability to fix just about anything with pocket lint?" Marty notes.

"Only very temporarily, and only if I really concentrate. Trust me, that's the better power." Pause. "Once you get past the awkward phase."

[kalel-ofkrypton.livejournal.com]

"I can also make popcorn and toast," he agrees with a grin, and he's actually not joking. Heat vision toast is the best toast. "One of the nice things about superpowers is you don't need to save them for the big serious stuff, you know? I was putting up fences by hand by the time I was fourteen, and it only took so long because Dad thought I might somehow put a nail through my hand when I pushed them in. I also have absolutely no need for potholders or oven mitts."