HARDWARE 27: The Great Outdoors (by Henry Thrun)1
HARDWARE 28: The Great Outdoors Part 2 (by Henry Thrun)2
HARDWARE 29: Zoey (by Henry Thrun)4
HARDWARE 27: The Great Outdoors (by Henry Thrun)Lately, flying around at night has been my only escape. As always, classes are going well. Maybe too well. I get homework done so fast that it doesn't distract me very long. It's tough being around my friends. Most of them are also friends with Desdemona and there's so much friction there. Most of the other girls especially seem to hate me.
But I still can't get over the fact I killed someone. I've had anger problems before in Minnesota, but never this bad. Things must just be piling up. There's this whole fiasco with Desdemona. And those robbers are still pulling heists with no problems. I've caught a few of them here and there, but none of them say anything that can help us. And they still seem to get out of jail so quickly. Mulligan and I are flabbergasted. Heh, that word cheers me up a little...
But the hardest thing is the fact I killed a guy. It still haunts me. I'm afraid that I could do it again. I just try to quench all my emotions, especially when I'm Hardware. I never got that upset before. I think this may have all started with what happened in California with Adam...
But now I'm looking forward to a camping trip a bunch of the college students from church are going on. Hopefully I'll be able to just go out and enjoy the peace and quiet. Just let go of all this stuff that's weighing me down. Desi's going to be going, so that might make it a bit more difficult. There'll be plenty of other people there, too, so that should help...
I road out with Aaron and a couple other guys in his car. It was quite a drive and I started out catching up on some sleep. After a nice nap I was wide awake. "Hey, Aaron, I could drive a while if you'd like."
"No thanks, Jake. Joe drove while you were sleeping. I just started. I'm good."
"Oh... ok." I sat a little while longer and was again getting bored. When we stopped to get gas, I pulled my laptop out of the trunk.
"Oh, man!" Joe exclaimed. "You brought you're laptop? We're supposed to be getting away from it all. You know, roughing it."
"Sorry, man, but I think I'd go nuts without it."
"You buzz kill!" Joe laughed. I wanted to work on my Hardware, but I didn't want the others to see my designs and arouse suspicions. I tried watching movies and playing games, but I was still bored.
When we finally arrived, we met three other cars of friends. There were fifteen of us, seven guys and eight girls. We all started setting up tents.
"Hey, could one of you guys give me a hand?" asked Dianna.
"Sure," I replied as I turned to help.
"That's ok, Jake," said Vanessa, rudely. "We've got it." Desdemona glanced over at me with a disgusted look.
After we were all done with the tents, the others were sitting around a campfire. After earlier, I just felt like being alone. Actually, I just felt miserable. Aaron popped his head in. "Aren't you going to join in on the fun? We're making s'mores!"
"Laddy frickin' da!"
"Ok..."
"I'm sorry, Aaron. I'm just... you know."
"Yeah," Aaron said as he sat down next to me. "You guys aren't taking the break-up too well."
"I thought Christians were supposed to be more forgiving..."
"Well, we're supposed to be..."
"I guess I can't blame her. I did act like a jerk."
"She'll get over it."
"It's not just that. I've just been so depressed in general. I can't control my anger... I don't know. Why won't God heal me?"
"In all seriousness, I think you should look into getting some help for that."
"Yeah, I keep meaning to. Other stuff just keeps coming up, you know..."
"Otherwise, nothing cheers me up more than a nice tasty s'more! Come on..."
"Oh, ok..." I followed Aaron out of the tent and joined the group at the campfire. It was a little rocky at first, but Joe and Aaron got some conversations going and things started to smooth out. There was still tension between Desdemona and me, but the rest of us started talking like we did before the fiasco. The others seemed to be letting it go and just opening up again. Hopefully Desi and I will be able to start talking again soon, but at the time I was sure glad I came on the trip.
We all went to sleep shortly after. It was probably the best I slept since before I dated Desi. That is, until I heard some loud rustling around outside. I got up, put on my glasses, and stepped outside. It was chilly in just sweat pants and a t-shirt. I reached back in and grabbed a flashlight. One of the other tents opened up. "Jake?" Desdemona stuck her head out. "Are you the one making that noise?"
"No, I was just about to check it out." I turned on the flashlight and looked around a bit. There was a little more rustling to my left and I quickly flashed the light over there. A squirrel jumped out of a pile of leaves and scurried along.
"Just a squirrel..." said Desdemona as she pulled her head back in. Then suddenly there was a loud thud. Stepping into the light from my flashlight was a giant metal foot!
"Nordsworth, come with me"
HPT: The character, Zoey, is a character taken from the play "Wolfgang and Axle" which was written by my brother, Perry Thrun.
Desdemona screamed at the sight of this unfamiliar robot. It was 6' 8" and had a head shaped like a human skull. A blue glow came from its eyes and mouth. It also had a pair of shoulder mounted canons. And apparently it was here for me...
Desdemona's scream woke everyone else up. Heads popped out of tents. "What's going on?" "Come on, guys, keep it down." "What the..." "Holy crap, what is that!" Followed by more screams.
The robot looked around and aimed its canons at the others. "Everyone, RUN!" I yelled as I lunged at the thing, slightly pushing it off balance.
"But Jake..." Desdemona said.
"NOW!" and the all hustled out of their tents and ran in different directions as I slipped around behind the robot and clamped my arms around its neck. Suddenly, I fell right through it. It phased out like the Vision! I landed on the ground and it picked me up by the back of my neck. I was able to grab a rock right when it grabbed me.
"Scrallion reporting," it said. I'm assuming it wasn't talking to me. "Nordsworth has been apprehended." How does it know me? And what does it want with me. "Returning to base."
I turned and smashed the rock into one of Scrallion's eyes. He (it, whatever...) was startled and I was able to break loose from his hold. He looked at me and to my surprise his eye was not damaged, just a bit dirty. This thing was made of some rather impressive materials.
Scrallion then vanished into thin air. "Now what..." It didn't look like anyone else was around, so I morphed into Hardware. (Moments like that one is why I even sleep with a drive in.)
"Jake?" came a voice from behind me.
"Zoey!" It was another girl from church that came on the trip. "I told you all to run!"
"I couldn't just leave, I... Jake, what are you?"
Scrallion appeared right behind Zoey and grabbed her, wrapping both arms around her. She let out a scream. "JAKE! HELP!"
"Surrender, Nordsworth."
"Ok, ok," I said as I morphed back to human form. I walked towards them, ticked at Zoey for getting herself into this.
"Please, let me go," Zoey pleaded with tears streaming down her face. Scrallion looked at her for a bit. His face was incapable of emotion, but he seemed fixed on her. To my surprise, he did let her go. She came running up to me crying the whole way and clearly shaken.
Scrallion must have received a transmission. He said, "I... I... My apologies, sir. I will bring in Nordsworth." He looked back at us and aimed his cannons at me, but was hesitant.
I turned to Zoey and sternly ordered. "Run. I mean it. And don't tell anyone what you saw."
"I... I won't," she replied with a look of horror on her face. She turned to run and I charged Scrallion. He took a few shots at me and I took flight, dodging them, and flying straight at him. Scrallion phased and I flew right through him. I stopped, turned, and a few of Scallions' blasts were heading right for me. But they went right through me without causing any damage. He must not have phased back in yet so his shots were also phasing.
His next shot, though, was in phase and knocked me to the ground. It wasn't as powerful as I expected. They (whoever 'they' are) must want me alive.
Scrallion teleported right in front of me and picked me up. He grabbed one of my arm cannons and ripped it off. He then tried to do the same with the other but I swiftly punched him. He stumbled back and I punched him a few more times. His metal exterior was very strong. It was also blocking my x-ray sight as I tried to see what was making this thing tick.
I had the upper hand, but Scrallion phased out again during one of my swings and I went right through him. I stumbled forward but kept my momentum going, turning back around as I went.
I could tell when Scrallion was in and out of phase. I couldn't harm him when he was phased out, but he also couldn't harm me.
Scrallion came back into phase and I started firing with my remaining cannon, knocking him back. Though I didn't cause too much damage, I was able to knock him back. As I slowly started approaching him, he said, "Power levels low. Must return for maintenance. Mission: unsuccessful." He teleported out again. I waited fifteen minutes just in case, but he did not show up again. I grabbed the cannon Scrallion tore off and morphed back to human form.
I was relieved it was over, but I was also angry. He specifically came after me. He could have hurt my friends. I wanted answers...
I gathered everyone up and the police came out. I told them how another robot showed up and they both fought while I hid. The others mentioned how it knew my name. "It must have over heard us earlier," I said.
After we were done with the police we packed up what was left of our belongings and decided to cut our trip short.
"Jake, could you ride with me?" Zoey asked.
"Huh? Oh yeah, sure," I could imagine she had a lot of questions.
"Zoey..." Desdemona started to say. Desi rode up with Zoey.
"It's ok, Desi," Joe said. "You can ride with us." Zoey looked very unhappy, but agreed. Aaron later told me how she spent the whole drive complaining about Zoey making a move on her ex-boyfriend...
Zoey and I spent the whole time talking about what happened. I thanked her for keeping everything secret. I pretty much gave her my entire life story. It actually felt good to share this with someone. Peter was the only other person I had talked to much, but he was pretty busy himself.
Zoey also asked me about Scrallion. I wish I could have answered her questions...
I didn't really know Zoey very well. I met her at church through Desdemona, but we hardly ever talked or anything. While I was more of a computer nerd type, she was part of the "in" crowd. Not that they were mean or acted snobby, we just hung out with different people. Zoey was homecoming queen at her high school and always dressed really well. Half the guys at church had a crush on her.
But we did a lot of talking on the way home from the camping trip, right from the moment we left.
"Jake! What in the world was that all about?"
"I'm a super hero, Zoey. I'm a mutant."
"Well no duh! Does anyone else know?"
"Not from church or school. Well, except for one other person who I can't say..."
"Oh my gosh! So you change into a robot? Are you one of those robots that have been seen at night?"
"I'm all of them, actually. I create different designs with my computer and save them on jump drives. I download the designs and transform into that robot."
"How long could you do that?"
"Well, I discovered my ability to absorb and download info when I was still in elementary. I soon discovered my ability to generate small objects and transform myself into big ones after I started downloading weapon specs. Once I started downloading more and more information, I learned so much it was really easy to put together my own programs to create these robots."
"So that's why you're such a nerd!"
"Hey!"
"Sorry. But is that how you do so well in school?"
"Yeah. I have a nearly perfect photographic memory and can download materials in seconds."
"Isn't that cheating?"
"Uh... Well, I consider it just using my God given abilities. But I'd be lying if I said that thought never crossed my mind before..."
"So, do you have a super hero name?"
"I call myself 'Hardware'."
"..."
"You don't like it?"
"It doesn't seem very... original."
"I don't know of anyone else who uses it. At least not in this universe..."
"What was that other robot back there? Was he your arch nemesis with the same powers as you, except he uses them for evil?"
"And you called me a nerd."
"Hmpf!"
"Actually, I don't know what that was. I just heard it say his name was 'Scrallion'."
"Do you have an arch nemesis?"
"Not really... My brother also has powers, but I wouldn't say he is. I fought this guy called Animax..."
"I heard Spider-Man beat him."
"Well, he helped a little..."
"So you know SPIDER-MAN!"
"Sure do. Spidey and I are tight!"
"Do you know any other super heroes?"
"I know most of the X-Men. I've visited them quite a bit here and there. Storm's actually one of my best friends."
"No way! Storm? She's so pretty! I've seen them all on the news. Do you know Cyclops? He's so cute!"
"He's a dink."
"What?"
"He's pretty cool. Nightcrawler's also a pretty good friend of mine..."
"Do you think you could help me meet any of them sometime?"
"I don't know. Spidey's pretty secretive. And most of the X-Men don't like me..."
"Why not?"
"They feel like I'm turning my back on my fellow mutants by not joining them."
"That stinks."
"Yeah."
"So why did you start fighting crime?"
"To be honest, I was just looking for a thrill."
"Really?"
"Yeah. But I've seen how I've helped people. Like orphaned and abused kids. Now I really feel like I'm doing well, you know?"
"Wow, that's deep!"
We continued to chat. We talked about other stuff, too, like classes, everyday life, and what happened between Desdemona and me. I could only imagine what she was thinking with Zoey and me driving back together...