Overused

Author: Seth

"Treat your tools right and you can be sure they'll return the favour."

*Wham*

The sound of metal slamming into concrete rebounded throughout Raitou’s room.

Sighing in annoyance, the panthryan lifted his left arm from the wall and absently inspected the row of fresh new pockmarks adorning the grey, uniform stone. Transferring his gaze to his arm he looked at the crude, brutal sawblade that extended from his elbow where he’d once sported a fully functioning, if automated, arm. Sighing again, the silver headed assassin resisted the urge to slam the hunk of metal into the wall again, and instead turned around and dropped down onto his bunk.

Reaching under his bed, the golden eyed man pulled out a plain, well-crafted metal box, and a folded square of well worn leather. Putting the box to the side for the moment, Rai spread out the leather in front of him. Taking a small breath, the panthryan detached his arm with a wince and a small oath and laid it down on the tough animal hide.

Taking another breath, deeper this time, Rai reached forward and placed his left hand on the hunk of lifeless metal.

Sparks flew, the buzz of electricity mixing with the hiss of smouldering leather to form a harsh symphony of industrial sound, and the smell of scorch animal skin filled the air.

With startling speed, the entire arm lit up, bathing the entire room in a dull red glow as it slowly lost its substantiality.

Rai’d found that remaking only a portion of the limb at a time tended to result in a host of minor flaws which took weeks to find and correct, effectively rendering the time saved by doing half-job zero. That and he usually wound up encountering the flaws mid-battle, and so the near death experiences he saved himself were more than worth the extra time spent to ensure that his arm was in perfect working order.

Once he’d melted the limb into a homogenous mass, and was fairly sure he’d incinerated all the impurities he could without tossing practicality completely out the window, Rai started manipulating the superheated metal, slowly, and with meticulous care back into the forms he’d grown to know oh so well.

Bit by bit, sections of the molten metal were drawn away from the larger body to become plates, gears, screws, cables, and at least fifty other finicky little pieces that kept the whole ensemble going, all formed under the careful guidance of his surging element.

As the last bit of metal twisted to form the tip of his pinky (he always ended up making the tip of his pinky last; he wasn’t quite sure why), Rai turned around and opened the metal box he’d put aside earlier.

Rooting through the container for a moment, Rai’s hand swiftly withdrew from the rectangular receptacle gripping a coil of insulated wire. A few more trips and the young man had, in addition to the wire, an assortment of wrenches, pliers, screwdrivers, and knives (along with a scalpel or two) lying in front of him.

Starting at the shoulder, Rai began the exhausting, and insufferably aggravating process of reassembling his prosthetic arm. While he’d put together the mechanical components of his arm together so many times that he could probably do it in his sleep, rewiring the thing remained, crassly put, a complete and utter bitch.

Grunting with no little relief as he snipped off a bit of excess wire and twisted the final connector onto its open end, Rai placed the newly reconstructed arm onto his bed. Replacing all his tools in their box, he folded up the rectangle of heavily used leather and pushed both back under his bed.

He’d have to give the arm a test run, but he really didn’t feel like doing it at the moment. Transferring the arm to his bedside table, Rai took the limbs place on his bed.

He supposed it was actually a bit of a blessing in disguise, having to remake his arm on a relatively regular basis. It kept the limb from getting worn out, over-used.

Not that it stopped the entire process from being a pain in the ass and a half.

Snorting in wry amusement, the panthryan closed his eyes and drifted off into the deep, dreamless sleep that comes after a hard days work.