The kid? His height made one assume so at least, as did his temperament, even if his sharp tongue would leave one to assume older. Regardless he didn’t look up from his work though Jinny could tell that he was very closely monitoring her. But her restraint at not touching his stuff, and her open praise of it seemed to have paid off. As when he next spoke it was much less harsh than it had been.

“Mikron” Would come the tiny person’s off hand reply, revealing that he did have manners even if they were begrudgingly used. “And It all fits because I’ve got a micro space array set into the core regulator.” He would reply with a half hearted gesture towards a central part of his rig. One that didn’t really help narrow down what it was he was gesturing at all. “Weight is taken care of due to the gravitational diffuser” Another gesture though this time it was easier to tell he was motioning towards the jetpack. “Not sure if I got the polarity matrix for the refocusing foil set up properly since they won’t let me into the proper workshop until classes start. So not sure if it works as a jet pack yet. But that is the goal.” He would gripe sneering at the machines in the rest of the room as if they personally were responsible.

“And of course I made this myself.” He would go on, almost insulted that he wouldn’t have made it. “Have you met any of the other blockheads here? None of them can even tell the difference between an ion dispersal engine or a proton wave generator.” He would roll his eyes at the apparent stupidity of the rest of his classmates, but it would either seem like he didn’t know that Jinny was also in that group now or thought her outside of that prior categorization.

Before Jinny and Mikron could keep talking Slade would slip into the conversation. “You built a gravitational diffuser?” He would ask, sounding almost impressed. “How many years into your study here did you accomplish that?”

Mikron’s reaction to that question was more caustic than the seemingly innocent question deserved. As he spun around in the chair to level a glare at Slade. “Please, I built a low grade diffuser in my basement long before I got a scholarship here.” He would spin back around before he could take in Slade’s darkly amused look. It was one Jinny was more accustomed to, as it was one that often came before some of the more brutal days of training.

Still it was notable beyond that as it seemed that for whatever reason Mikron either didn’t recognize or didn’t care about Slade. Which was a refreshing change of pace.

Dismissing Slade the boy would go back to his work. “Why do you want a jetpack by the way?” he would ask Jinny. “Your metagene not give you a way to get airborne?”