2637/Teenage Mutant Greasy Monkeys ... wait....

Teenage Mutant Greasy Monkeys ... wait....
Date of Scene:	27 July 2020
Location:	AN UNASSUMING LOCALE
Synopsis:	The gang meets up to do some work on the Turtle Van. Kainashi lifts the engine, while Sally Pride, Donatello, and Leonardo work on securing some communications hardware.
Cast of Characters:	Kainashi, Sally Pride, Donatello, Leonardo

---

Kainashi has posed:
    SOME TIME AGO, IN AN UNDERGROUND SKATEPARK NOT SO FAR AWAY... Donatello had inquired to Kainashi if she wouldn't mind lending a hand (and strong arm) to a project vehicle, and after working out how to use a Shell Cell, including making Donatello's name purple, she had let him know that Aloe Pecs said Yezzy 2 trunk -- along with an emoticon of a flexing arm and a truck.

    So, an arrangement had been made, and running along the rooftops, Kainashi has her hood up in spite of the hot weather, a couple of paper sacks tucked into cloth totes held in her arms. She slips and slides along the rooftops, barreling over an AC unit as she hums with the loud, fast music coming from the earbuds gently tucked near her ears.

Sally Pride has posed:
Sally Pride was getting in on this too. When she got to meet the other Turtles finally and found out one of them was also a gearhead, that was great. Her vehicle knowledge was more practical, but that could be a good thing to balance out Donatello's highly technical skills. But it meant someone she could talk to about mechanical stuff on an even field.

When the lioness does arrive at the designated location she's carrying a large metal toolbox on one shoulder. She may not be as exceptionally strong as a certain dog, but she still makes it look like that thing is no heavier than your typical dufflebag. "Wasn't sure what we had for equipment so I brought some of my own."

Donatello has posed:
    In the following days, Donatello spent a considerable amount of time staring at that text message. Whenever his brothers were too busy or distracted to notice what he was up to, Donnie would flip open his Shell Phone to read it. Eventually, he worked up the nerve to type up a reply, but it took a few revisions before he felt comfortable enough to send it: 'COOL' with a smile-with-sunglasses-emoji. Some time after, a more detailed message was sent in order to settle the details of their meetup. There was an alley, not too far from Rupert's, where Donatello had parked the Turtle Van. This alley was nicely hidden from the street, as it required any curious passerby's to walk into the alley and turn a blind corner. Donatello arrived first, spending his brief moments alone to quietly rehearse. "Hey," he quietly says to the air before shaking his head, frowning. "Hi!" he tries. No. The turtle sighs and reaches down to pop the hood of the van. "What's up?" Donatello says, again to no one. He props the hood open and sighs heavily. "Don't be a nerd, Donatello," he mutters. "Don't be a..." BANG!

    It's the sound of a startled, distracted turtle smashing his head on the hood of the van. "OW!!" he exclaims, turning to the source of his scare. The turtle reaches up to rub the top of his head and manages a smile. "Hey Sally," he greets with zero nervousness or apprehension. It seems the rehearsals were for someone else.

Leonardo has posed:
Speaking of arms, Donatello isn't actually alone, because his oldest brother has ALSO decided to show up. While not the technowizard Donnie is, Leo is at least able to follow directions well when Donnie gives them. However, when he sees Sally and Kainaishi, he simply waves. Donnie's clumsiness, however, gets a smile from the eldest turtle.

"Don't mind him, he's still the actual genius. I'm only here to help him out." Sometimes, the best thing a leader can do is simply support the people around him at doing what they do best, and so Leo does just that.

Kainashi has posed:
    Kainashi appears after Sally, hopping down from a fire escape and into the alleyway, with a grin on her scarred-up face, the super-strong dog drawing her earbuds out as her tail wags, and she tilts her head back to let her hood fall, her ears giving a shake. "Hi Donnie! Hi Sally! Hi -- " she pauses a moment, and straightens up a bit as she regards Leo, her tail stopping its wagging a moment before she gives a stiff nod of surprise. "Hello Leonardo!" she greets him, and then looks into one of the bags.

    "... I am glad I brought enough for ten." she murmurs, then hoists the bags up. "I've got Belly Gut Bomb Burgers an' fries!"

Sally Pride has posed:
Sally Pride winces a little at the sound of a head banging against the hood. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you.... But be glad you don't have a tail to get caught." Her own tail flicks as she waves to Leo with her free hand, having already previously pegged him as the more stoic type. Someone had to offset Raphael being a hothead and Micheangelo being... Micheangelo. "Hey there, Kainashi... Oh good, someone thought of food."

She then wanders around the vehicle to the front with Donatello. "So, what do we have here to work with?" Sally sets the toolbox down with a thud, then pulls off her jacket and hangs it over one of the side mirrors. Greasemonkeying was definately tanktop and jeans sort of work (to prevent getting too hot mainly).

Donatello has posed:
    "Oh, it's okay," Donnie replies. "I appreciate you coming to help out with this. It should be pretty easy, but I thought it would be nice to get everyone together, anyway." Donatello points a finger at the exposed engine and begins to explain. "The plan /was/ to outfit the van with a few wire antennas, each one cut to a different length. One would be resonate at the frequencies used by the police and other emergency services. Of course, one would be resonate for the Shell Phone frequencies. But..."

    Donatello rests a hand on the top of the exposed engine. "The engine seems to create a lot of electromagnetic interference. Instead of the van increasing the range of the Shell Phones, it actually seems to make them worse."

    "But...According to the schematics I found on the web, this model engine should have a spot we can use as a counterpoise for the antennas. The problem is...It's on the bottom, so we need to lift it up to expose the contact point." Just typical Donatello technobabble.

    Just as Donatello was just about to go on even more, Kainashi appears. "Hi...Hey...Hello!" Donatello greets, suddenly a little more awkward. Any confidence that came from his brief opportunity to talk about resonate antennas has just melted away. "Thanks for coming.... And for those. The bags. The food in the bags. Thanks for bringing food...."

    "Leo! Kai brought us food!"

Leonardo has posed:
Leonardo is wise and tactical and level headed. He also understood maybe half of what Donatello said. "...When you want me to help, Donnie, you're gonna have to simplify that." Leo is disciplined to a T and can follow directions he understands exactly. But...he doesn't quite have a grip on everything Donnie was talking about.

Meanwhile, he greets the other two. "Sally, Kai, a pleasure." He slightly nods his head, as if he were doing a muted version of a traditional Japanese bow. When the food is mentioned...well, there's plenty of time to eat it when the task is done. Leo wants to get the job done.

Kainashi has posed:
    Kainashi smiles at Donatello as he greets her, her tail giving a little bit of a wag as she regards the smart turtle as he stammers. Her ears draw back a little bit, the pinks inside turning a little pinker before he turns and calls back to Leo.

     "You're welcome! I figure it'd be a nice thing, since I heard when Sally meets up with Alopex and food's involved, there's always crime!" she comments, and she sets the burgers and fries to the side, before giving a respectful bow to Leonardo (mind your manners, Kainashi!), and then hurriedly scurries over to take a look at what's under there. "Shouldn't be too bad. I have to get under there to lift it though, you'll have to disconnect the things and stuff before I can get it out. I don't wanna break it." she comments breezily, and looks to Sally. "What's up, Sally?"

Sally Pride has posed:
"He said there's a spot to wire part of the antennae network to counteract the disruptions and balance the electromagnetic differences against each other, but it's on the bottom of the engine frame," Sally happily translates for Leo's sake. "Hopefully that won't happen this time and we can eat in peace afterwards." She snickers a bit at Kainashi's reasoning, and at Donatello being a bit dorky and awkward. Surrogate Big Sister mode has been engaged for the most part.

Sally opens her toolbox, takes out a flashlight, and flicks it on as she leans over to look into the hood area. Her tail flicks back and forth a few times as cat's tend to do as she reachs in with the other hand to carefully feel around. "I think I see were the support and anchoring bolts are. Should have the right size to loosen them, but.. Oh." She was going to ask how they intended to lift the engine but that's what Strongarm Doggo is here for. Good thinking. "Yeah, that works!" She goes back to her toolbox and pulls out the wrench tray. If there is one advantage to mutant strength, it's not having to rely on pneumatic tools for power.

Donatello has posed:
"Leo, we're trying to..." Donnie begins talking, and then finds his explaination syncs up neatly with Sally's. "...Counteract the distruptions and balance the electronmagnetic differences." Donnie raises his eyebrows and makes a thumbs-up gesture. "Right!"

    Donatello moves to the side of the van and opens the sliding door. Inside, the van seems to be in the process of becoming a mobile base of operations. Repurposed CRT televisions have been bolted to the walls, along with what seem to be radio transceivers from several decades ago. It's all a bit of a mess, though it shows promise. Near the door, Donatello finds his own tool kit and begins rummaging in it. "So, it seems that this can be a pretty easy job if we all pitch in," he calls over to the rest of them as he searches for something. "Sally, you can work on disconnecting the engine block from the van. Leo, could you come into the van and help feed the counterpoise wire through this hole I dremeled out?"

    Donatello moves back to the front of the van, now holding a welding torch and a spool of very thick solder. "And so, when Sally disconnects the block and Kai lifts it, I'll take the counterpoise that Leo feeds through the hole and solder it to the spot on the engine."

    Donatello tucks the welding torch into his belt and reaches up to put on a pair of homemade welding goggles. "How does that sound?"

Leonardo has posed:
...Leo kinda got that direction. Once he heads on in, well, as befits one with more discipline and sense than IQ, he holds whatever needs to be held perfectly steady. And when the wire comes through, he has to wonder, "...where do I attach this again?" The level of speech is really hard to follow. Still, Leo does his very best to make sense of it, mostly by trying to turn big words into smaller words in his head that make sense to him.

Kainashi has posed:
    "Complicated. Just tell me when to lift." Kainashi replies without any sarcasm at all in her voice. She then goes to shimmy under the van, humming to herself the Mission Impossible theme as she wriggles on the ground, then rolls to her back and looks up at the engine block. "How high will you need me to lift this, Donnie? Like, three feet? Four feet?"

Sally Pride has posed:
"Sounds great, Don. Everyone chips in and it'll be an easy job done... Nice goggles."

Sally assembles a longer handle to her socket wrench so she can reach the anchors from the top and not be in Kainashi's way of lifting. Then gets in there and gets to work. It takes some force to get the old bolts to loosen up, but the leverage helps. It will take her a few minutes to get all of them loose, and get the driveshaft disconnected so it doesn't get bent out of shape by the engine moving. So Kainashi's got time to get herself into position. "Can you find decent grip down there girl?"

Donatello has posed:
"No, no, Leo, don't attach it. Just push it through the hole. I don't want the other end of the counterpoise to be connected to anything in case the solder heats up the wire," Donatello calls out before turning to face Sally. He flips the lenses on his goggles down to protect his eyes. "Thanks, I made them myself," he explains. Donnie takes the welding torch from his belt sash and looks down at Kainashi, though she's totally hidden by the engine. "Uh, push it up about one and a half meters. That should be good," he replies, smiling.

    Donatello's smile is large. It's a good day. He's doing science with his friends. He gets to boss Leo around a little. And he loves the metric system.

Leonardo has posed:
Leo again follows directions. Splinter once told him that he would lead must also have the humility to follow when appropriate. Now is the appropriate time to follow, so he does. And the wire, then, will remain unattached. So, instead, Leo waits. And considers all the technology around him. Maybe he can come up with some tactical requests while he's looking around...then Donnie will have more to build...hmmm...

Kainashi has posed:
    "Yep!" comes Kainashi's voice from underneath the truck.

    "Uh... Donatello? How big is a meter? Like a parking meter?" she questions from beneath the engine block, her hands already having found a couple of good spots, before she re-considers, crouches, and turns. Luckily, she's still pretty small and compressable, settling the weight against her shoulders.

Sally Pride has posed:
Sally Pride looks down into the compartment, figures out the distance from below, and reachs in to tap at part of the infrastructure frame. "You see this spot girl? Get the bottom of the engine about level with that."

Once Kainashi has her grip set and is ready to lift Sally gets back to the last bolt. "Everyone ready?" She starts wrenching. "Lift as soon as you feel the weight entirely on you, so it doesn't fall free." Sally has quick reflexes like a cat should, she'll had enough time to get her arm out of the way.

Donatello has posed:
    "A parking meter?" Donatello considers that. They are sometimes about that height. "Yeah, sometimes. A meter is about---" He stops talking once Sally handles it. Probably better than he would have. "Right."

    Once it seems that everyone's confident in the plan, Donatello flicks his thumb against the welding torch to ignite it. "Ready," he calls out, leaning forward towards the engine and pointing the end of the solder pool towards where the contact point is likely going to be once the engine is lifted.

    "Leo," Donatello calls out, a little louder this time. "You might want to get your hands off the wire for this. It might get hot once the soldering starts."

Kainashi has posed:
    The pup beneath the engine shifts her weight, and then gently draws herself up, aware of her own clumsiness (and the fact that in spite of her strength, she doesn't have the mass to match!). There was no sinking from the block being supported by her, and she lowly draws up, until she can rest her nose on the side of the motor housing, and she gives a slight yawn. "High enough" she questions brightly, her tail wagging like crazy at just being useful for a change. She has no issue holding up the engine block, other than it's a bit oddly balanced. Especially with her tail wagging.

Sally Pride has posed:
Sally pulls her arm out as soon as she feels the weight shift from the last connector loosening and the engine moving upward. "Yeah, that should be just about right." She rests a hand on the engine block to help stabilize it a bit, but Kainashi is doing all the literal heavy lifting. "Just keep it steady... Let us know when you're done, boys."

Leonardo has posed:
Leo does let the wire go, then. Since the soldering tool is flashing very bright light, he doesn't need to be told not to look at it. Instead, he sort of glides around the inside of the van. Now, if he thinks about the last battle, what would be really useful to have that they didn't have now? Hmmmm.

"Ya know, Donnie, sometimes it helps to start on the rooftops when we get out of the van. Ever thought about putting in...a little boost to help us get up there?"

Donatello has posed:
    Once the engine is raised, Donatello leans forward and touches the solder to the wire and presses the hot end of the torch against the contact point on the engine. Once the solder forms a nice joint, Donatello pulls the torch away and backs up from the engine to give the others room. "All set!" he calls out. "You can lower it back down, Kai!" Donatello flips his goggle lenses up and walks towards the van's side door to check on Leo. "A boost, Leo? Something to launch us up and out?" Donatello smiles and shrugs a shoulder. "It could be done." The turtle climbs into the van and reaches for a small electronic measurement device sitting among the other junk. He connects a cable to it, seems happy with what it says, and then unplugs the cable. He gives his brother a thumbs-up.

Kainashi has posed:
    "Right-o! Goin' down!" Kainashi states, and she slooowly draws herself down, as easy as she can, and ends up about an inch above hwere she needs to be, before there's a soft 'oof!' sound from beneath, and that last inch is lowered. "Is it good?"

Sally Pride has posed:
"Hold it right there for a few." Sally leans back in and goes about getting the bolts screwed mostly back into their sockets. To the point they're snug enough to support the weight at least. "You should be able to let go now." Then she leans back to look to Don. "Want to test it before I tighten everything down? Or it will be a bi--" she stops, remembering Kainashi is down there. "--a bugger if we have to redo anything."

Leonardo has posed:
"Yeeeeah. I was thinking just enough of a catapult for us to get to the rooftops as a single unit, land, and run out of sight on the roof. It's another way to stay hidden while we move around topside, and we also can get the drop on enemy combatants that way when we come back down." That's Leo's thinking, anyway. The tech stuff, he doesn't get. Practical tactical stuff, that's his wheelhouse.

Donatello has posed:
    "I'll think on it, Leo, but I bet we could do it!" Donatello agrees. He walks out of the van and back towards Sally and Kainashi. "It's looking good on the vector network analyzer. The standing wave ratio is one to one on all the right frequencies." Donatello smiles and reaches up to remove his goggles. "Thanks for helping out, everyone. We couldn't have done it without you. Now we'll have ears listening and, most importantly, the Shell Phones will be able to work outside the city if we need them to."

Kainashi has posed:
    "On the vessawha..." Kai asks from below, and she simply lifts up the van to its back wheels, wriggles herself out from underneath it, and sets the van back down. Leo and Donnie might be shaken inside it. "Well, I'm glad it's workin'! Any time you need something heavy lifted, let me know, I'm pretty good at it!" Kai states, and flexes her right arm.

Sally Pride has posed:
"If you do put in a launcher, I'd suggest using pneumatics. Hydraulics won't give you the force at the speed necessary to give you the boost past the roof without heavy machinery." When Don confirms the readings are good Sally gives him a thumbs up. "Hey, I'm glad to help!.. And have someone that can actually talk the same mechanical stuff with. Not having to worry about distance will be a big help in keeping us connected."

With that Sally leans back into the engine compartment. "I'll get these tightened down properly, and then we can see about that food Kainashi brought."

Yep, today was a really good day.