"Alrighty now, up you go!" My father gave a grunt as he hoisted me up onto the console with difficulty. He always said he was too old to have a daughter so young, but I never knew the difference. To me, it was weird that all of the other girls my age had young dads, whose hairlines were lush, whose smiles were creaseless, whose glasses were not as thick as hockey pucks.

"Now, then," he said, trying not to seem too terribly winded by the effort. "Why don't we see if we can't calibrate these knew prototypes…"

Father's test console was a long, bulky thing, laden with keys and buttons, cluttered with Styrofoam cups and candy wrappers from end to end. A dozen monitors screamed into an otherwise dim room, affording a constant stream of information, hundreds of factors and variables that my father would take in, all at once, test after test, never tiring nor wandering from his work. At the other side of the room was a huge reinforced window, separating us from the test room, which, for the time being, had to be filled with lower-density gases to sustain the experiments that, day after day, consumed my father's time.

He always said he was a work-a-holic, and mother agreed, but what difference did it make? To me, it was the other dads who thought there was time to rest that were strange.

"Well, then, Akane-chan, what do you think of that?" father said, pointing to the monitor highest and furthest to the right.

I turned my gaze up to it, tilting my head curiously. My tiny mouth opened a little in awe, eyes lighting up. "Can we really turn it up that high!?" I exclaimed.

Father let out a chuckle. "Sure, why not? No point holding back now!"

I glanced at him momentarily, smile spreading like an infection across my face, giddy and eager, but then, a twinge in my heart ripped the smile away. It couldn't be helped. Father had been working on this project for as long as I could remember, and so, most of the time, I never saw him. But in the summers, mother and I would come to the laboratory to see him and cheer him on. Only, this year was different. My parents were separating and mother didn't want to see him, so it was just me.

"Now, now, what happened to all of that excitement? I promise you, this is going to be the best explosion you've ever seen, my dear! How about this? I'll let you turn it up as high as you like!" He gave me a wink, gesturing welcomingly at the dial. But all I could do was sigh.

"It's just not the same without mom. I wish she could watch it with us."

Father's smile fell and he let his breath escape in sorrow. "I know. I feel the same way. But… things don't always work out the way we plan."

I dropped my head, hoping to hide my budding tears, wiping aggressively with my sleeve. "It's not fair! She's just so selfish!"

Dad tsk'd admonishingly, smoothing my hair down in an effort to soothe me.

"That's no way to talk about your mother, now. Remember, your old dad hasn't exactly been there for her. She's been looking after you all by herself all these years, and the heart can only take so much!"

I shook my head. "But couldn't she find some other way to make it work? Why does she have to break our family apart!"

Father hummed, slicking his thinning hair back in frustration. The same peach pit red as mine. "Well, my girl, you know we only get one life to live."

I looked up at him with a pout, already puffy from the tears. "What does that have to do with anything?"

He managed a small grin. "Your mother deserves to live hers the way she wants, doesn't she? Someday, you might want to do the same."

I crossed my arms indignantly. "No way! I'd never do that."

Father chuckled. "Maybe so. But whatever you end up doing, I'm sure there will always be someone disapproving of it entirely. There are just that many people in the world. Just look at our work here at the lab. We've produced so many incredible technologies, things that the world never even imagined when I was your age. We've built prosthetics that allow people to lift fifty times their own weight or see at a hundred times twenty-twenty, tiny robots that can take infinite forms from toasters to ion cannons, refined nuclear fusion reactors down to battery packs small enough to fit in a book bag and safe enough to lay beside a newborn baby. Technology that can make ordinary people like you and me into indestructible super heroes. Yet still, crowds gather on the streets in protest at what we do."

I blinked at him, unfazed. It was true. Classmates were always harassing me, saying that their daddies told them that my daddy was an evil militaristic radical, a mad scientist, a loose cannon, a freak. But, to me, it was their dads, with their nine-to-five sales jobs, answering telephones and filling out paperwork, that were the freaks. Yet, how was that supposed to make me feel better?

Sighing, my father produced a crinkly smile. "Well, maybe if you brag about this explosion, she'll get so jealous that she'll change her mind, hm?"

I raised my eyebrows in surprise. Wordlessly, I leaned over the keys to grab hold of the shiny, black dial, turning just until it could be turned no further. Father gave an impressed whistle.

"Even I'm a little bit nervous about that. Are you sure?"

I nodded definitively, and father, sheepishly scratching the back of his head, hesitated.

"Daaad," I whined. "You promised!"

"Too true," he replied. "I guess a promise is a promise. Will you do the honors, Akane-chan?"

He didn't have to tell me twice. With delight, I flipped the heavy switch that armed the ignition, and turned the key that opened the latch to the glowing red launch button, which I pressed with glee.

Father began to sweat profusely as the countdown began. I had long since noticed that adults didn't have much nerve for bad decisions. I had no such handicap, and guilelessly skipped across the room, pressed my face to the window until, flattened like a pancake, I barely had enough space to breathe. Oh, how I loved explosions.

10… 9…

Father glanced nervously at the abort button. Maybe he should…

7… 6… 5…

After all, it was better to disappoint his little girl just a bit than to…

4… 3…

A long, low rumble echoed through the halls, shaking the lab like an earthquake.

"What was that?" my father wondered aloud.

I pressed my face a little harder into the window, excitement peaking. My face fell in frustration as suddenly the power died and all of the machines around us sighed themselves to sleep, leaving a deafening silence in their wake. "Awwww," I groaned.

"What in the world is—"

Then, out of nowhere, from the right, the iron walls peeled apart with an ear-splitting roar, and I only saw for a fraction of a second the fast approaching form of a massive metal object as it came hurtling toward me, before, like the sky after a lightning strike, everything went black.

…

My heart beat in my ears.

I could barely hold my eyes open as I wobbled feverishly. Everything was blurry, but I could faintly hear the trickle of water and the knocking of metal. My eyes soon focused in on the scene before me. Sunlight filtered in from above, illuminating burst pipes, crumpled steel, wreckage and ruin.

I tried to move and let out a weak groan as an incredible pain overwhelmed my body. I turned my head to find the source.

No. I couldn't believe this. This was just a bad dream, right? On my right side, pinned between some heavy machinery and the crumbling wall was my arm… and even with my inexperienced eyes, I could see it was beyond salvation.

The creaking of metal drew my gaze to the center of the room. There, in the light, was my father, struggling to sit up, covered in soot and blood. I could see glass imbedded in his cheek. His broken glasses hung uselessly off of his face and he clutched his side, groaning in agony. Then, something huge began to step into the light. A mechanical monstrosity that I had never seen before.

"You'll never get away with this!" My father hoarsely managed, blood bursting from his mouth only a second later.

"I already have," a distorted voice replied. Slowly, it raised its metal arm as a hot white light began to collect at its palm, whistling and popping like microwave popcorn.

My eyes grew wide. No no no no no. This was definitely a bad dream, right? I began to yank at my arm desperately, beyond the grip of any pain in the face of losing my father. My heart pounded like a drum, each beat like a bomb in my ears. I had to do something!

"Rest in peace, Doctor McCrory."

"No! Dad!"

And, just like that, in a blast of white, my father was gone.

A/N: Sorry it's a bit short! Please let me know what you think. I really appreciate reviews, good or bad. :3