My exams starts soon.
So enjoy this chapter!
She took a step back, unwillingly.
"Yes," she said, without breaking eyecontact with the tall man.
"Who's at the door?" Clara asked, as she walked to the door.
Mary looked over her shoulder at Clara, who's eyes grew bigger when she saw the man in the doorway.
"Oh," was all she said at first. "I … hmm..."
"You weren't at home, so I thought you might be here." The man just said.
"Yes..." Lia's mother smiled. "I'm coming home now, dear."
Then she hugged Wally's mother, thanked her for the tea and walked past her out the door and walked hand in hand with the man.
Wally's mother stood in the doorway, stunned, and looked on as her neighbor left with a man, she wasn't really sure was Clara's ex-husband.
"Don't be mad," Lia said.
He just glared at her and looked through their notes.
Lia signed loudly and looked around the room to be sure there wasn't anyone around.
"Look Wally." she whispered. "I know that this isn't our ideal situation, but think about. We have a scientific mystery and unlimited resources to solve it."
"And a boss that's going to use our discoveries to do anything from putting someone in the hospital to mass murder." He said angrily.
That made Lia cringe. "Yes," she said. "But you agreed..."
Wally shook his head and dipped a long wooden stick in the xenothium.
"What was I suppose to do?" he asked and pulled the stick out.
Lia signed and took a stick of her own.
"Nothing … Look can we at least appreciate that we're here together?" She asked, as Wally started walking backwards stretching the xenothium as far as he could.
Wally smiled. "Yeah, you are by far the best person to be kidnapped with."
Lia giggled. "How many times, before this, have you been kidnapped?"
Wally smiled wryly.
"You apparently can appreciate how handsome this face is," He said and gestured to his face and pulled at the xenothium a little more. "Do you have the blowtorch ready?"
Lia waved it at him and nodded.
"Then … commence!" He said in a deep, serious voice that made Lia laugh as she nodded.
She put the wooden stick on top of the stretched-out xenothium and made a circular motion with the stick, wrapping the sticky xenothium around it. When she had done that about five times, she stopped and took the blowtorch.
"How high do you think I should go up?" She asked as she tried to keep her hand, holding the stick, still.
Wally rubbed his chin for a second. "Go up as high as it can, remember we have to find some way to separate it into smaller parts, so this part is an experiment in itself."
Lia nodded and turned on the small blowtorch. It spewed a small blue flame and she held it to the xenothium, while trying to keep her other hand still.
The xenothium the flame touched began to boil and stretch, but it did not separate from the xenothium they had stretched out between the two sticks.
Lia looked at Wally, uneasy.
"What if this doesn't work?" She asked, her voice trembling.
He smiled reassuringly at her. "Don't worry Lia, it's not like anything is going to happen to you. If this doesn't work, we'll just try something else."
Lia nodded and looked down at the blowtorch again. The xenothium still hadn't separate from the rest.
She hissed annoyed and looked at Wally with angry eyes. "What do we do now?"
Wally just smiled and pointed to the table, where they had placed very thin paper before they began.
Lia rolled her eyes and they placed the wooden sticks on the paper, making sure the xenothium was inside the paper.
"Let's get the dry ice, it seems like that's the only way to cut it, is to freeze it solid and break it apart.
Lia signed. "It irritates me, that we can't find an easier way to do it."
Wally just shrugged and found some dry ice.
While Wally froze the xenothium, Lia found a hammer and an ice pick.
Then Wally removed the dry ice, and Lia placed the ice pick on the solid xenothium and gently hit it with the hammer, until the ice pick went through the xenothium.
Wally signed relieved. "Well, at least that's over let's continue with the initial experiment."
They each grabbed an end of the paper and very slowly and carefully they made their way to another table, where they placed the paper on a long, rectangle formed, glass box lid.
They then slowly placed the glass box, with several tubes attached, on top of the lid, sealing it.
"Okay..." Lia signed. "Now all we need is to slowly turn on the cold, so it freezes slowly.
"Yes," Wally nodded. "We should do it one or two degrees at a time in ten minutes intervals.
Lia looked at him with a wry smile.
He raised his eyebrow.
"Then what should we do in the meantime?"
"Ohmm … can I ask a question?"
"Of course," Robin said with a smile.
"I understand why you're here, because you're his best friend, but … why is Connor here?" She whispered the last part.
"I stayed here once for a few days." Connor said behind her.
Artemis looked over her shoulder, but Connor didn't look angry or offended, he just looked at the door in front of him.
"Well," Robin said making Artemis look forward. "Let's get to it."
And he rang the doorbell.
Wally's mother answered.
For a second she seemed confused, but then smiled at them.
"Artemis..." She said, probably because she was the only, she knew the real name of. She looked down and up again. "Wally still haven't come home."
"Yes … we know, we just wanted to make sure you were okay." Robin said.
She smiled and took a step back. "Come in," she said. "I've some coffee."
They looked at each other and nodded.
They stepped into the living room and all sat down on the couch.
Wally's mother came in with the coffee and sat down in the chair opposite them.
"When … when did you know Wally was..." Robin didn't know how to say it.
Wally's mother gave him a sad smile and looked down.
"The day before yesterday, he said he went to school in the afternoon with Lia to finish a science project, they were going to call me about where they were eating dinner." She said. "When he didn't call, I thought they were at Lia's place and just forgot to call, but when it got late I called Lia's mother, but she hadn't seen them either."
"Hmm..." it came from Robin, as he rubbed his chin. "Where does Lia live?"
"One house down..." she said and pointed to the left. "Look … her mother is very worried, so … please don't go over there and question her, okay?"
Connor opened his mouth to protest, but Robin stopped him with a hand.
"Okay," he said gently.
Then Wally's mother looked at Artemis. "I wouldn't worry about Wally my dear, he'll turn up sooner or later."
Artemis smiled sadly.
She was about to say something, but stopped herself.
"Nothing weird happening in the last few days, did it?" Robin asked carefully.
Wally's mother gave him a gentle smile and shook her head. "Wally was Wally, he went to school, to meet you, talked to Lia and came home no later than dinner."
"Can we see his room?" Robin went on.
Wally's mother gave him a stern look.
"I know you are trying to help, but it is best to leave this to the police."
Superboy raised an eyebrow at her. Not understanding why she wouldn't want their help.
Robin just nodded. "We understand."
There was a few moments of silence, as the woman drank her coffee.
"Well..." Artemis said, feeling uncomfortable. "We should go."
Robin made a quick nod and they got up, thanked Wally's mother for the coffee, they hadn't touched, and left.
"What do we do now?" Superboy asked as soon as the door closed behind them.
"I say, we pay Lia's family a visit." Artemis said, a little too eager.
"You hear her," Robin said and nodded towards Wally's house. "She didn't want us to question Lia's family."
"Who says we'll question them?" She asked with an evil gleam in her eye.
"Lia!" He shook her from her sleep.
"What?" She said sleepy and looked around.
Had she fallen asleep on a chair?
"The xenothium it's changed." Wally said very fast.
"What?" She repeated, a little louder this time and stood up and followed Wally to the glass box.
"Look." He said and removed the top.
Lia's eyes widened when she saw it and, in shock and without thinking, she reached in and touched it.
"How does it feel?" Wally asked.
Lia looked upwards and ran her fingers across it.
"Soft and … leathery." She said like she considered it a lot.
Wally noted that down and nodded to himself. "Let's get it out on the table."
Lia took hold of the paper,Wally removed the the glass lid and Lia placed the xenothium down on the table again.
Wally looked at it, while rubbing his chin. "Can you get me a knife?" He asked without taking his eyes off it.
Lia just nodded and got a knife from a drawer, it wasn't sharp, actually it was more like butterknife.
"This was all I could find," she said and handed him the knife.
Wally looked at the knife with suspicion, but tried to cut the xenothium nonetheless.
And to both of their surprise the knife went right through and the xenothium were cut in two.
They looked at each other.
"We just had a breakthrough, didn't we?" Wally asked.
Lia nodded smilling. "Indeed we did."
"So when it's cooled to -25 degrees, it almost becomes fabric-like, write that down."
"Already done." Wally said. "At least no we found a way to cut it into pieces without using a hammer."
"Yeah..." Lia said. "But how do we turn this into a weapon."
Wally thought about it for a minute. "Well … if we can get it to cool down even further … if for an example it's worn as some kind of clothing … theoretically it could turn into an amour."
Lia nodded eagerly.
Suddenly the door opened.
They both turned to the shadow standing in the doorway.
"The master wants to see you." It said.
Tell me what you think :)
My exams are the last week in May and the entire month June, so ... we'll see about the next couple of chapters.
By the way for future chapters: If Count Vertigo had a son, what kind father would he be? Caring or Abusive? I can't decide.