(pls not that no one will have seen Wash with his helmet off!)

There was always a lot to do when it came to making upgrades and getting everything up and running. Luckily for Washington, it seemed a lot of animals that lived in this place knew a little bit about technology. He had managed to get a soldering iron that was connected to the likes of a battery. He found some copper wire as well so that he could end up using it correctly instead of just frying the wires. Washington knew exactly what his gear was capable of and there was a lot that was hidden inside of his helmet. Right now it was only capable of showing a couple components, that being the time of day it was, the temperature outside, and a calendar that the only way he could use it was plugging it into a computer and using the program from there. He didn't have to do it every day though, as he knew exactly what his schedule was going to consist of every second of every day. If someone didn't see him, it just meant that he was working, and constantly working.

Even if he wasn't doing anything for the likes of the Ascendants he considered what he was doing to be considered work even if the civilians didn't think of it as so. Washington didn't care what others thought of him getting out and about because right now he wasn't in the best emotional state with the appearance of Agent Texas and the appearance of Carolina coming back from the dead. Certainly being a shocker to the former human because he was fairly certain that death meant that they were going to stay dead and never come back to life. The Freelancer was going through a lot and refused to tell anyone, shutting everyone out. He hadn't slept in the past two days because his hallucinations had come back and he was afraid of going to sleep. Especially since he and Carolina shared the same room for the time being, as if he suddenly started talking to himself there would be suspicion on how healthy he was.

His arm was slowly getting better, but it was going to take a little bit more time before he could actually put pressure on it. Meaning it made his life even more frustrating than it already was as having to do everything with just one arm was difficult enough for him. Now he was going to try and get his helmet back in working order. Before he had traveled to this strange world, there used to be all sorts of features his helmet was capable of doing. A radio being one of them. Washington knew that it would be beneficial to all of them to get their helmets working, especially with the simulation troopers. The Meta was still out and about and that meant it was going to be advantageous for them to communicate through long distances. Carolina didn't have a helmet of her own, but that didn't really matter when he could usually find her and where they went, they were usually together anyway.

Now that she was a serval, he doubted that his comrade would be able to take on the likes of the Meta in her current state. The armored smilodon sat himself down in The Canopy portion of the territory, looking around to make sure that no one saw him what he was about to do. On his back thanks to the likes of a magnet that was incorporated into his armor, he carried a soldering iron and the copper wire. He also had some electrical tape that he had inside the small storage compartment of his armor. Removing said components and place them out in front of him, he made sure to plug the soldering iron into the battery that it was attached to. From there, he took off his helmet. It always felt strange doing so, as he never took off his armor even while he slept. He couldn't afford to. He didn't trust the civilians that lived here after all. Taking off his helmet, he took off the back panel of said helmet so that he could look at the wires that were in it. From the looks of it, when he had crashed landed, one of the wires had ended up being cut. Washington wasn't exactly an engineer though. he could fix a car most of the time, but this wasn't a car.

He also needed the tools to even begin to fix it. Holding the helmet with his broken arm, he carefully curled his paw around the likes of the soldering iron. Grabbing the copper wire in his mouth, he raised the soldiering iron near the two severed wires. This was either going to work, or he was going to destroy the inner workings of his helmet. He was about to find out. Touching the copper wire to the soldering iron made the thin copper wire melt onto the existing wire. He made sure to make sure the copper touched both ends of the wire, and once he was done with that, he turned the iron off and spit out the copper wire off to the side. From there, Washington would replace the panel that he had taken off and then put his helmet back on.

As soon as his body made contact with the helmet, the lights inside of it lit up and showed a small display that was inside of the said helmet. He blinked his gold eyes and inhaled as he raised his right paw to touch the button that was direct to the side of his helmet, just behind where the visor started. He hoped this work. As soon as he turned the button though, Washington was greeted with just a loud electrical screech inside of his helmet. "Fuck!" Washington shouted and immediately pulled his paw away from the button that turned on the radio inside of his helmet. Well, that was just great, he must have done something wrong. A growl of frustration escaped his jaws as he used his paw to pull over the notepad that he had and wrote something down. There had to be something that he was missing. His ears were certainly ringing, and he leaned the back of his head against the tree that he was leaning on. Why couldn't everything just work like he was used to them to? "speech"

"You should ask.... uh, the Stark dude, Mr. Ferro, for help. He seems to know a lot." Came the leopard's bubbly voice as she teleported over upon hearing somebody yelling and cursing, offering Washington her usual smile.

Looking up to Washington with curiousity sparking in her eyes, she spoke. "Why do you wear that all the time? It looks heavy. And bulky. So why try to fix it? Is it special to you or something?"

SUITE
HEART

No one saw Washington without his signature helmet. No one. Hell, Suiteheart was positive even Carolina hadn't seen the smilodon without that damn thing on. It wasn't that the white feline detested the helmet completely. No, she just couldn't understand who would want to keep something like that on their person all hours of the day - and she had the same question directed at Church and even Caboose. Seemed like a whole lot of work for nothing. Maybe she was just lazy. She probably would've had different ideas if she had been bred to be a soldier though.

The sudden expletive was what drew her towards Washington and Thea, however. The self-proclaimed 'cursing mom' always seemed to be pulled toward anyone who suddenly screamed a curse word. Was she immature because of it? Probably. Did she care? Absolutely not.

The Admiral stopped at Thea's side, turning her head to listen to the young girl's words. A lopsided grin graced her maw as she seemed to be asking some of the only questions that really mattered. Moving her eyes toward Washington, she said, "Asking Stark to help you out might be a pretty good idea, but I doubt you'll think about it since you're a lone wolf kinda dude." Her tone was laced with amusement. Taking a seat beside Thea, she added, "What've you got written on your notepad?"

© [color=black]MADI

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It was true that even Carolina had yet to see what his face actually looked like. The Freelancer had no reason to show his comrade his face when she could just as easily communicate with him when he had his helmet on. That wasn't who he was, and who he was trying to be. Whatever this animal was. The Freelancer didn't like being an animal, and he was fairly certain that others knew this by now. Washington had no intention of accepting what he was, maybe just because he was stubborn or he believed that there was indeed a way of getting back to being human. It didn't matter to him. While he had his eyes closed, Washington heard pawsteps that were coming toward him. He wasn't the greatest when it came to figuring out what movements meant what and who they belonged to. He didn't have that kind of time after all. Washington lowered his head to its neutral position so that he wasn't leaning his head against the tree. It was Thea. The leopard seemed to be around wherever he was, and he knew exactly why. That didn't mean he was more likely to deal with the female anytime soon, and at the mention of Stark, a huff escaped his jaws. He wasn't going to ask for anyone's help either. Maybe he was too stubborn but he didn't care.

Luckily the healing smilodon's eyes had been closed when she had teleported her way over so he didn't see her use said power. [b]"I don't want anyone else touching my gear. This equipment isn't exactly from this timeline so I doubt he would be able to figure it out himself." Washington would state calmly in the usual deadpanned tone that he used. It wasn't anything against Stark, of course, he just thought that either of them would be better at it. Then came the questions about his armor again, which others didn't seem to understand why he constantly wore the gear and such. He was a soldier and needed to be prepared for anything. That was the same in this world as well as strange things constantly seemed to be happening. "It's for protection. Its also against protocol to leave any of the gear where I'm from unattended. Habit." That was part of the truth, as there was a list of reasons as to why he wore his armor. Some more personal than completely logical. Everyone probably had questions about his armor, and he was perfectly fine with that. He heard movement that was coming toward him, and he turned his head to look at Suiteheart. He adjusted the way he was sitting, and Suiteheart was one of the few animals in this group that he somewhat respected.

Although he was still confused as to how she had come back to life in the first place. Same with how Carolina ended up coming back to life. A huff escaped his jaws at the mention of asking Stark for help. The guy had just arrived and it seemed everyone thought all technology was the same. This was different, and he had some of the knowledge of how to maintain his equipment. Texas would probably be better at it then him, but he didn't really care. "Not going to happen." Washington would state calmly, ignoring the lone wolf comment. If he was a lone wolf type of personality, he wouldn't even be here right now and be off on his own. Sure it would be a stupid decision but he wouldn't really care. Washington then looked at his notebook as Suiteheart questioned what it's about. "It contains schematics of the helmet and where the different wires are. It also documents the different trials I have been conducting and the conclusion of them." The Freelancer would reply, obviously leaving out the fact that none of them had been successful. He was working on it. Washington would turn the page to a detailed drawing of a Mark 6 helmet and showing it toward Suiteheart by pushing it across the ground.