I slept late on Monday. Between the medication and the day out yesterday, I was exhausted.

I wasn't going back to school any time soon, at the very least not until the police investigation was completed.

Shuffling around the kitchen, listening to the old radio on the counter I decided I should try and find out what my power could really do, instead of constantly being caught off guard.

Sitting at the table with the notebook I brought yesterday, I made a list of everything I knew while Rewind – that was the name my phone had chosen – would look things up for me on the Internet.

That was the plan anyway. Once I had Rewind in one hand and a notepad in the other, I got a little distracted making notes about him.

I still didn't know where he came from, only that my power was involved. His contact list was empty so no help there, so I decided to look through the photos.

Flicking through the photos stored on his memory it quickly became clear he had taken a liking to recording everything he saw.

"Rewind, can you show me the photos from before I found you?"

The little bot chirped happily, before he scrolled through countless images to bring me to the 'starting point and I brought up the first image. It was a picture of me, taken when I first found him, I picked another image at random.

I was very nearly sick. "OH GOD! DELETE! DELETE!" Looking away, I held Rewind at arms length while trying not to get any of... that on me. Puzzled by my actions the little bot did as I asked. Apparently he didn't understand the term 'explicit content' or 'filter'.

Ugh. I wish I could build something to get those images out of my head.

Moving carefully through the remaining images, I came to two conclusions: 1, Rewinds previous owner was a freak and 2, they had been one of Emma's interchangeable followers.

I wonder if she even knew or cared her phone was missing?

Rewind himself wasn't much help, his first memory was waking up in a locker. He had taken a series of photos that documented his great escape, helped by his running commentary. There were some rather good close-ups of rats and spiders.

When he woke, Rewind had immediately transformed and set to work escaping. There had been a hole in the back of the locker, which the owner had used to hide things in. It lead to a crawl space between the walls that he followed till he reached a small air vent. From there he had made his way back to my locker.

My bag had been beside my locker, so he must have climbed in after calling for help

Most of this was guess work based on what he was telling me combined with the photos he had taken. I could barely remember what happened after they shoved me in there and Rewind claimed to have no memory of what created him.

Mentally shaking myself, I tried to get back on task. It didn't matter how or where Rewind came from, he got me out of that locker. Right now that's all I care about.

Putting all that to one side, I focused on Rewind's physical condition. Whatever had created him had also upgraded him.

He was connecting himself to the nearest cell network in range and I don't think anyone had a faster net connection than him. He also didn't seem to worry about data limits. If he was still a normal phone he would have filled his memory twice over with music by now. Just where he was downloading the music from was another matter entirely.

I knew most of this was probably illegal, I just couldn't bring myself to care.

Most of this came from my power when he sat in my hand. When I had suggested opening him up for a better look he had grabbed a fork and tried to defend himself with it. I was joking... mostly.

By lunchtime, I was fairly sure I knew what my powers were. I'm a Tinker, a type of para-human who could build advanced technology 'Para-humans Online' had thread after thread on them along with countless theories on where their ideas came from.

Aside from a few very rare exceptions, no two para-humans had the same powers. Though some could have similarities. All tinkers built stuff, for example, but there was always a unique twist. All tinkers had a specialisation and from the looks of things mine was robotics.

One thing I couldn't find was any information on was this weird touch power I had. Strictly speaking it was classed as a 'striker' power but I couldn't find any information on a comparable power.

Trying to find my limits, I got up and went into the front room. I must have looked silly walking round the house touching everything but soon I had an idea what worked. The TV and my old computer both responded, but the keyboard and mouse when disconnected did not. Nor did the TV remote.

So it only worked on things that were 'advanced' enough or directly connected to something that my power could work with.

What's more, each time I found something my power could work with I would feel a warmth in my chest.

When I came back into the kitchen, the radio was losing signal again. It was old and had been dropped years ago, Dad fixed it but it never been the same since.

Putting my hand on the radio, I closed my eyes and felt my power map itself the radio out in my mind. Holding the flow of information back, I tried to focus on what was wrong.

Even with my eyes closed I could see the problem. When it was first broken some parts were knocked loose. Dad fixed most of them, but one had developed a fault that caused problems when it got hot.

Ignoring the radio for the moment, I closed my eyes and concentrated on the warmth. It wasn't painful, just a gentle heat that was slowing spreading across my body. It was like being in a hot bath.

I could feel it trying to reach the radio. Curious, I tried to mentally 'push' the heat into the radio. I gasped as the broken parts rebuilt themselves and the scratches and nicks on the case filled in.

I let go out of shock, breaking the connection while I stared at the radio. It looked brand new and sounded better than ever.

Backing up, I sat down at the table. "Beep?" Rewind was watching me nervously. I put my hand on the table and he gently patted the back of my hand, trying to calm me down.

I could feel the warmth fading and I was shaking again. Actually now I realised it, I was also breathing harder. I felt like I'd just run up and down the stairs a couple of time.

A strong cup of tea later and I added to my notes that I can fix things.

Is that why Rewind never needed charging? Was I charging him every-time I picked him up?

I had let go before the warmth could do more than repair the radio. What would happen if I kept pushing?

Their were a couple of boxes of junk under the basement stairs. Maybe I could find something useful in one?

Digging through the boxes had mostly been a waste of time. The only thing I had found that I could work with was an old VCR.

Pulling the final box open, I found an old 1/6 scale model of a sports car. One of Dad's friends had got it for him as some private joke from work that I was 'too young to understand'.

The car was white with green and red racing decals and red wheels. The plaque on the side of its stand said Lancia. It looked cool but it was just a lump of plastic, my power couldn't do anything with it.

Taking it over to my workbench, I unbolted the car from the stand and started trying to get the body off. Hopefully I could use the shell. There was room enough inside it for me to fit an electric motor and some batteries and if I removed the model engine I might be able to...

Grabbing some paper, I started making some designs white dictating a shopping list to Rewind

I spent most of the afternoon working on what I could do with the car until I had to make a start on dinner.

Rewind had been looking prices online for the different parts I needed to hopefully make the model into something I could work with. As dinner cooked, I looked through his results I felt my stomach fall.

There was no way I could afford most of this.

I could cut some corners here and there, build some parts myself from scratch, but to do that I would need tools I cant afford.

Maybe I could sell some of my designs? I just didn't know who would be interested in designs for a robot that turns into a miniature car that they couldn't build... Maybe I could try and work on commission?

Of course, I didn't have a clue how to go about setting any of that up.

Letting my mind wonder, my eyes fell on the repaired radio and an idea slowly began to form. It wouldn't solve everything, but it would be enough to get me started.

Grabbing Rewind, who squawked and beeped at me, I quickly called Dad.

"Hey Dad," I said in greeting.

I could hear the surprise in his voice, it had been along time since I called him at work. "you okay, Kiddo?"

"Yea, I'm fine. Actually, I just had an idea that I need your help with. Can you stop by the junkyard on your way home?"

"I think so, why?"

This was going to be the hard part. "I need a couple of TV's. Plasma or LCD would be best, it doesn't matter if they are broken."

"Taylor... are you sure? That sort of thing isn't cheap"

"I know, it's okay. Trust me, if this works you will get your money back."

He sighed. "Alright, Taylor, I'll see what I can do. But you're going to explain this when I get home."

"Okay! Thanks! Bye!"

If that worked we should have a bit of extra money. And if it doesn't Dad is going to be really mad.

I was just finishing up dinner when Dad got home. He put the TV's in the front room while we ate.

"Okay Kiddo, what was all this about?"

I shrugged "I was messing with my powers earlier when I found I could do this!" I walked over to the least damaged TV as I spoke.

Dad had brought two flat screens, both were about twice the size of our current TV and one of them had clearly been smashed.

Putting my hand on the TV that was in better condition, my power mapped it out and I started to push my power into it. Most of the damage had been internal but it had picked up some cosmetic damage while at the yard.

I heard Dad gasp as the TV repaired itself.

Taking a step back I sat down on the sofa, that had been more draining than fixing the radio. "See? I can use my power to fix things. We could sell this for what? Twice what you paid for them?"

"Probably not, pawn shops are cheap," Dad muttered while examining the now repaired TV. He turned back to me. "You okay?"

I nodded. "Yea, just trying to catch my breath."

Having caught my breath, I immediately walked over to the other TV. My power told me that it was in a much worse state, as if that was not obvious. The screen was smashed and and someone had torn parts of the casing off. there was also some missing parts on the main board.

I wasn't sure how my power would handle the missing components, so this would make a good test.

As I pushed my power into the TV, I was able to see the broken parts repair themselves. But what really drew my attention were the missing parts. Replacements folded or grew out of the surrounding pieces.

My heart was hammering in my chest by the time I let go and stumbled to the ground. "Taylor!" Dad was there immediately to help me up. I felt like I had just ran a marathon.

"I'm okay! That was just more tiring than I thought it would be"

"Taylor, I know your excited by all this but you need to be careful. What if I hadn't been here? You've already had... I can't..." He didn't say it but I knew what he meant. I'd already had one heart attack.

By the time I had calmed Dad down, I was starting to feel better but I had to promise to be more careful in the future.

Checking the TV told me that I had increased its mass.

It looked like I could ignore missing components and my power would create them directly but the mass cost me.