Dominic gazed upon the Sony PMW-TD300 in awed reverence. The 3D camcorder was nestled in its carrying case, gently swaddled in layers of foam. The matte black sides dully absorbing the light.

Brockton Bay University was one of the better schools out there, but the fact that the film department had enough funds to waste on this $50,000 camcorder was amazing. And he had finally made it to the top of the waiting list.

The possibilities were endless! His next project was going to be amazing, so amazing, that it will attract the attention of some bigwig in Hollywood. Then Dominic would be whisked off to a life of luxury, babes, and booze. Filming superstars and capes, drinking champagne, maybe even a girlfriend or two! Girls liked guys with money.

Dominic sighs, and closes the case, dreams melting away. Of course, the chances of all that happening were slim to none. He would probably have to work his way up from the bottom. But when his chance came, at least the skills he was learning now would let him be great, or at least good. And this week? This week he got to play with one of the most advanced video recording devices on the planet. (Not including Tinker-tech.)

Pulling out his cell, he dials his best friends number.

"Sup Dom?"

"Dude, I got the 3D camera! I need-need-need you man. You have the looks, you have the voice, you even have the muscles, you have to be the star of the new film. It's 3D man! I haven't bugged you much this year to act in my short films and junk. I only got you to do that one commercial for me, so you HAVE to do this Mark!"

"Finally got to the top of that list huh? Please tell me this isn't gonna be a super long film? I have a midterm coming up to study for."

"Nah, I've already started on my year long film project for the one that's supposed to go for half an hour. Changing to 3D halfway through would be crap, and I'm not scrapping it. I mostly only have editing left to do on it anyways. No this one is for my own midterm project. I've kinda been putting it off since I knew I was at the top of the list and was gonna get it this week sometime. We only have a week to film it, but it's a max of ten minutes run-time, so it won't take long to get all the footage we need."

"Eh, ok then. It's only a week, so it shouldn't hurt. When do ya need me?"

"Err, I was hoping for tonight? There's a few night scenes we can do here on campus, and I have all the props and clothes ready. I grabbed it all last week to save time for when I had the camera. Mostly just basic shots tonight, walking around, opening and closing doors, some parkour on the stairwells and art junk. I'll get some extras lined up for tomorrow or the day after, we can do the plot stuff then. I'll give you your script tonight so you have a day or two to learn the lines and figure out whats going on."

Dominic waits through a long pause, nervously biting his inner lip.

"Ok, I'm getting nowhere right now anyways. I'll finish up some stuff on my computer, and meet ya outside in fifteen minutes. That long enough to grab all your costumes and props and junk?"

"Yeah, that should be fine. I'll meet you in the parking lot outside your building. Thankyou-thankyou-thankyou-thankyou!"

"Hahahaha, it's ok dude, just remember me when you become a bigshot, ok?"

"Course!"

Clicking his cellphone off, Dominic grins widely. The grin fades halfway to his car, as the weight of the camcorder is starting to get annoying.

"Gorram heavy-ass thing. This is gonna be a pain on my shoulders soon enough. Thing must weight ten pounds at least! Ugh, maybe I really should start going to the gym with Mark. Stupid gyms already paid for with my tuition, might as well use it."

Finally the crappy beat-up car is reached, and Dominic puts the case down gently. Rubbing his arms and stretching his fingers out, he reconsiders. "Nah, gym means even more lifting of heavy things. Best to just minimize it as much as possible. No point in giving up my laziness yet!"

The trunk is full of the props and costume stuff, so Dominic gently slides the case into the messy back seat, firmly on the floor amidst crumpled up papers and empty drink bottles. Giving it a measuring eye, he silently orders it to stay put.

He navigates the streets until he is now parked behind a modern looking building. Technically it's teacher and grad-student only parking, but it's late enough in the day that most of them are home and there are plenty of free spots. Chances of getting a ticket are slim.

Mark soon exits, wearing nothing more than a tight white t-shirt and jeans. Dominic feels his usual flash of jealousy at the way his friend casually shows off his muscles and moves effortlessly, always looking cool. It's not fair that he looks so much like a muscle-bound jock! He is just as nerdy as me, but you'd never be able to tell by looking at him. And the worst part is that he knows that Mark didn't always look like this. He used to be just another pimply faced nerd, till they started going to University and Mark began to use the gym.

Pushing down the insecurities and jealous fears, Dominic grins at Mark and gets out of the car. "Dude!"

"Hahaa, man, you must be really excited about this 3D camera thing."

"Duh! This camcorder is worth half a crappy house! And now I get to play with it, for an entire week! It's gonna be orgasmic man!"

"Ewww, I do not need to know what you do with the camera when you get alone time with it. Moving on... Whats the plot? And genre? What do I need to know?"

"Oh right, lemme grab the script, one sec."

Popping open the trunk reveals clothes, sci-fi looking props, and a few ragged bundles of paper held together with an overlapping mass of staples in one corner.

Dominic lazily grabs one paper bundle and shoves it at Mark. "Ok, so its a sci-fi gritty thing, I figure this city has enough crappy looking buildings that it won't be hard to find good sets. And we can use lots of the university for interior stuff. There's a couple of things I put together to look like tinker-tech gadgets. You as the main character, get to wear this badass long leather coat I found in a thrift store. There is a boring work shirt in there too, and as long as you wear the same pair of jeans for the rest of the week, we'll be good for continuity."

"Can do." Mark nods.

"You are a law dude, trying to investigate a crime. You got gadgets that tell ya stuff, I'll edit in fancy looking screens later, so just stare at it and pretend it is doing something. So first is the mystery, who are you, what crime are you investigating, whats going on? Then comes conflict, you chase a suspect guy down, doing some of that cool parkour stuff that I've seen you show off before. We'll do some cool camera angles and make good use of the 3D effect."

"Law dude, that sounds so official." He rolls his eyes but Dominic ignores him and move on.

"Then a lull, exposition, as we have to interrogate him, talk to a team member or boss, depends on who we get as an extra, if they look like a boss type or a co-worker type. This parts flexible as long as we hit all the exposition points. Lastly the finale, another big fight scene, the twist ending, and close credits."

"Sounds good, not too original for a short film, but if the twists good enough it should work I think."

"Yup. Keeping it simple, and classic. So today we'll just get you walking around outside, inside, opening doors and closing doors, running, climbing stairs, jumping around doing parkour stuff, and being all amazing. Nothing with lines. We'll still have to do some parkour stuff later when I get the guy you'll be chasing down, but that's later. Easy nuff?"

"Yeah, sounds easy enough. Alright, I'll get changed, and put on my dangerous look." Mark makes a face, and while it is clearly exaggerated, it does make him look angry and dangerous.

Dominic hands him the clothes, and with no shame at all, Mark pulls off his shirt and starts to pull on the slightly too big dress shirt.

Muahahah, my secret weapon! Every guy will want to be him, every gal will want to fuck him, the perfect protagonist! And somehow Mark knows how to move just like an action hero. I don't know where the dude learned it, but I'm certainly gonna take advantage of it.
Dominic thinks to himself, already plotting out the best, most grungy locations to film at tonight.

They add on the accessories, a watch (not actually functional), sunglasses picked from a pile of different ones, and a wide belt with a cell phone holder that a prop gadget is put into.

The dark leather jacket hangs heavily, and Mark practices moving in it. He finally settles into a dangerous looking walk, coat swishing menacingly. Pure danger rolls off him as he glares at Dominic. A natural! Dominic thinks with glee. "Alright, that's awesome but maybe a little less evil, you're a detective, a good guy remember?"

Mark nods and tries again, somehow easily changing the walk to look more professional, like a trained and deadly government agent. Restrained danger this time, not as openly aggressive.

"Perfect! You read the script over more, and I'll get the camcorder set up. I already checked everything over when I signed for it, so the battery is full and memory sticks empty. It's ready to go in just a minute."

Dominic opens up the case, and cradles the camcorder like a baby, making sure that nothing has changed since the last time he looked it over. He shoves everything else back into the car, closes the trunk, and swings it smoothly to his shoulder, resting it comfortably on a thick hand towel that will hopefully prevent his shoulder from getting too sore.

Turning it on and checking the settings, he makes sure that it is setup exactly how he wants it, referencing some hastily written notes in his pocket from when he was studying the user manual. His face hurts from grinning so wide, and he makes sure to keep one hand on the camera for stability at all times. Turning to Mark, he feels tingly all over, excitement filling every inch of him. It's like Christmas, all over again!

"Lets do this!"


Dominic dangles upside-down by his leg at the top of the stairwell, Mark holding on tightly. The priceless, amazing camcorder tumbles as if in slow motion, down and to the ground. It only falls down a single floor, but that is more than enough. As it hits the ground, it seems to shudder, the case crumpling and a few parts flying out in a spray.

Dominic sees it all happening, and can do nothing to stop it, watching helplessly, arms outstretched from when he tried to catch it. He is paralyzed by dark emotions, wishing that he had fallen after it, had not been stopped by Mark. Maybe he could have caught it, shielded it with his body. Irrationally, he hates Mark, hates that his friend saved him from his stupidity, that even now, Mark is pulling him up, trying to get him over the railing and to safety. And it's all Dominic's fault. This fact is a hammer blow to his pride.

A sinking feeling, a sense of doom, of his life, his dreams shattering, overcomes him. He knows that there is no way he can afford to replace this camcorder. The University won't be happy. The fee just for returning it with a light scratch was already in the hundreds, he can't imagine how many thousands he is going to owe after this. They'll never let him sign out another camcorder ever again!

Despair, loss, panic, all overwhelms him and he blacks out for a second. Mark also blacks out, but neither of them know this. Luckily Dominic had already been pulled half over the banister, so with Mark's panicked grip holding strong, Dominic does not fall.

As they both come to consciousness, Dominic has only one clear thought in his head. I must fix this! I know how to fix this! I think I know how to make sure it will never break again, never fall! I need... I need supplies.

Dazed, Dominic realizes that he is upright again. He blinks, and looks right in Marks eyes. "I can fix this."

He ignores Marks attempts to ask if he is ok, and runs down the stairs.

Gathering the broken bits of the video camera, he dumps them in Marks arms. Mark looks at him bemused, and tries again. "Dom, you ok? Seriously, your kinda worrying me."

"It's ok, I can fix this. Make it better. It will never break again. We have to go to the computer labs, I need hardware, components. You have a keypass, you have to let me in."

"Dude, I'm sure its ok, the University will be a little pissed off, but that's what insurance is for right?"

Angrily, Dominic turns on Mark, "NO! Even if they replace it, I can't afford the fees they'll charge me for breaking it. And I won't ever get another department camcorder to use. I'll have to buy a crappy cheap one and never be able to make a good film again. I'll flunk! Or be kicked out, unable to afford next year's tuition. I need you to help me."

Voice wavering, angry tears fill the corner of his eyes. "Please!" He pleads.

Dominic both hates and loves Mark, as compassion and pity fill his face. "Ok. Whatever you need."

Mark leads the way to the computer department, and lets them in with a single swipe of his keypass. There is a room full of components, neatly labeled and organized, that Mark shows to him. Dominic grabs them with an uncanny intuition, knowing with a glance if he needs it or not.

A design is unfolding in his head, a camcorder that can't be dropped, and won't be a heavy weight on his shoulders. It will hover, and fly instead! And just in case something hits it, it will have a shell, an unbreakable shell to protect it. Hmm, and I can line the shell with stuff to protect it from EMP's. It has to be well protected, can't have things destroy it, not electricity, not a fall, nothing! I need more stuff, these components are not enough. "Mark, I need more stuff, I need large coils, and mesh. Some other stuff too..."

"Uh, we have lots of junk that the University keeps, just in case it ever wants it again. But it ends up just being room after room full of useless stuff that used to cost a lot of money. Heck, we run out of room for crap, you've seen the solar panels they store in my office."

"Ok, show me all of it, I'll know it when I see it." Right, can't forget the power source, maybe the shell can collect the sun's energy? No, too weak for the gravity manipulation needed for flight. Void energy! Pull it from a vacuum. I'll need vacuum tubes too!

Dominic gathers supplies, then finds a lab room with the needed tools. He starts adding things, and cutting away parts that have broken irreparably. Working into the night, everything seems to get added to the growing ball of parts, from expensive components to old junk liberated from dusty boxes. The only recognizable part of it all is the two camera lenses emerging from the mass. Somehow the lenses were not cracked by the fall, a minor miracle for sure.

Mark has to use a few tricks to get into some locked rooms, somehow he has mastered the art of breaking into places. If it was not so convenient for Dominic, he would start wondering at his friends suspicious new skills. However his laser-like focus on his project distracts him from lingering long on the oddity. Halfway through the project, they make a raid on the chemistry departments building. Liberating a pile of chemicals from a locked store-room is easy, and they make sure to avoid the few cameras in the building.

Mark rarely speaks, instead he just watches fascinated as this thing is built. Stepping forward to hold stuff or help when directed, he is the perfect assistant. Eventually they are almost done.

The chemicals get added to an aluminum sink that's been plugged up. Filtration meshes and electricity are applied in specific ways. Dominic is unable to say why he knows what will happen, he just knows that it will work and give him what he needs. The cotton t-shirt that Mark had been wearing earlier today is sacrificed, dipped inside the odd concoction. Fuzzy foamy stuff starts to gather on it, until it is now a sheet of thick but light, blue foam. Peeling off the cotton backing, the foam is wrapped around the electronic components, then the copper mesh around that.

Only the camcorder lenses stick out of the mesh and foam, through a hole cut for them. They even welded the mesh closed using a laser welder in the engineering department. Another layer of foam is made from the chemicals and t-shirt, and by now the ball of technology is a good foot in diameter.

Dominic barely remembers to neutralize the chemicals before he lets the sink drain, visions of a giant foamy explosion ruining the sewer pipes make him laugh out loud. "Dom? Uh, you are doing that evil mad scientist laugh thing. Not good dude."

"Sorry, was imagining a foamy explosion in the sewers. But I neutralized the stuff so it won't actually do that."

"So uh, is now a bad time to ask what exactly you are doing? Cus that looks nothing like the camera that broke. Somehow I doubt you will be able to turn this in and pretend that it never broke in the first place."

Dominic finally snaps out of the Tinker Fugue state, and really looks at what he has built. "Uh, right, fuck, I think you're right. There's no way this will pass. I guess it's been a few hours, I should probably explain what I was trying to do."

"Actually, it's 5 am, so it's been an entire night."

"Fucking shit! 5 am? Fuck!"

"Yeah... so uh... How long have you been a Tinker?"

"Tinker?" Dominic stares at his almost finished, flying video camera. "Holy shit! I'm a Tinker!"

Mark just stares incredulously at Dominic, then starts to laugh. Low, deep booming laughter shakes his entire body, until he winds up on the ground, still shaking with laughter.

"Fuck you man, it's not that funny!"

"Hahah... *gasp* Hahahaha, it totally is... Hahahahahahah... You... You... Didn't even realize... Hahaha!"

"Oh shit! You're not gonna tell anyone are you?"

"Hahahahhaa... sorry, gimme a sec." Mark pries himself off the floor. "Heh... Heh, ok, so no, I'm not going to tell anyone. Your secret is safe with me. Although we really should finish whatever you are doing fast, before people start to show up."

"Fuck!" Suspicion and paranoia rear their ugly heads, Dominic thinking for once about the consequences and odds of survival as a Tinker without a team. "How, how, do I know? How can I be sure I can trust you man? This is big! This is serious!" Panic adds a whine to his voice. "Oh god, oh god... I'm gonna be hunted down, forced to join a gang! Or the PRT! I don't wanna fight Endbringers! I don't wanna die! I just want to make movies!"

Hands suddenly grip his shoulders reassuringly, as Mark looks him right in the eye. "Relax. I won't sell you out, because I'm a cape too. Now you know. I have powers, you have powers. So if I ever told anyone, then I'd be screwing myself too wouldn't I?"

"You could be just saying that! Prove it!"

"How do you think I was able to pick those locks? Or do those cool flips and parkour moves? I barely have time to go to class, study, eat, sleep and go to the gym, let alone practice and learn stuff like that. I know techniques, skills. Like a way of walking that looks 'deadly and dangerous' for your movie. It's subtle, I didn't get showy lasers or anything, but I can do a lot of stuff with it."

Dominic thinks hard for a second, then slowly nods. It's plausible, and it would explain lots of niggling little things that had been bugging him. He'll test it later, when they don't have only an hour or two left before they get caught.

Relaxing, he shoves Marks hands off him. "Ok, then freak-out over. Lets finish the shell of this baby."

An hour and a half later, a strange reddish-gold metal is poured on the sphere. The sphere is completely encased, and is rotating slowly in the air to prevent any metal from dripping or pooling in any one spot.

"Dom? I hate to tell you this but you forgot to make a hole for the lenses. I know you put a thin sheet of glass from a microscope slide on there, but it's completely covered by the metal."

"Au contrair my friend! While the metal is still warm and mostly liquid, I shall hit it with this laser! That will organize the molecules in the metal to be transparent, but only where the laser hits! And the best part is that the transparency will only occur as it cools, thus I won't accidentally fry the lenses and delicate components inside!"

"Ah, well that's clever then. Good thing you gave it wireless connectivity."

"Now, FIRE THE LASERS!"

Mark flips a switch and just quirks an eyebrow at Dominic. "You've always wanted to say that haven't you?"

"Yup! Now shush, I have to be careful how I'm rotating this."

A few seconds later, the nods, "Ok, off. There, that should do it. Now we just have to hide all evidence that we ever were here and that we stole tons of stuff. Find a way to sneak this out while not touching anything with it as it's still molten hot. Then come up with a reason why I've completely lost the 3D camcorder, and can't produce even a broken pile of stuff. And of course, figure out how the hell I'm going to survive the fines I'm about to get hit with for breaking the damn thing..."

"Gee... Sure sounds easy when you put it that way." Mark's sarcasm falls flat as they both tiredly get to work, putting things away neatly, and scrubbing away all evidence that they were there.
"Oh well, with luck no-one will ever notice anything majorly wrong. I know no-one will miss the components we took, or the stuff we 'liberated' from the junk rooms. Also, I'm never ever acting in one of your short films ever again. Clearly you are cursed."

"Hey!"


AN: Ok, I lied. I felt bad for the two interludes, since both were kinda co-outs. So this little plot bunny made itself known, and I decided to give you all Leet's Trigger event, as imagined by me. I figure, there has to be someone with film background to have given them the idea to film video-game things for a living. So one of em's a Film student, wanting to be a director. And since directors can be assholes, who better than Leet? :P

Now we shall go back to your regularly scheduled entertainment. (And hopefully I didn't use the wrong kind of writing style halfway through the middle of it all. I do that sometimes.)