Dipping back into the case, Bernadette pulls out a series of belts and straps that she clicks into place around her waist and torso.

Next, she retrieves two thin, flimsy rectangular metal sheets – each about the size of a legal pad. Like a magician showing off a prop, she waves one in the air, then brings it down against her right wrist. But instead of smacking her skin, the metal curves and bends to wrap itself gently around her forearm. It then expands, hardening as it thickens, to form a protective sleeve. Not finished, buttons and LCD panels grow from out of the metal. She again repeats her actions with the second sheet, that likewise creates another, slightly different, gauntlet on her left wrist as well.