Walter rolled over and hit the snooze button. Then he jolted awake and checked the time. Shoot! He'd pressed snooze 3 times! Walter got out of bed, stripped, and threw himself into the shower. He scrubbed himself down, rinsed and turned off the water. Then he stepped out of the shower, dripping wet. After toweling himself down, he ironed his suit and put it on. He grabbed his backpack/jetpack/all-around-the-most-awesome-way-of-transportation, and placed a handful of gluten-free bread crumbs in front of Lovey, before pecking her goodbye. Then he stepped outside. Looking inside, he pulled out his pen and checked to make sure the rest of his inventions were packed away inside. Then, he clicked the red ink clicker on his pen and lifted off.
Flying was the best part of being a scientist, Walter decided as he soared over Washington D.C. He had perfected a nifty cloaking device made up of billions of micro-cameras that projected the image it saw in front of it to the opposite side. It did this on all sides, and it made up a little net that Walter could see through. Nobody saw anything when he was flying. It gave off a little bit of a shimmer, so it wasn't safe to use on the ground. Most reasonably attentive people would see the flickering and know something was there. When he was testing it out, he was accused of being a ghost 3 times. It was pretty hard to get out of those situations, but he had always managed it.
"Now let's see...where's the landing dock?"
Walter looked around and spotted a gray platform ejected from the side of the Washington Monument, facing away from the reflecting pool. He maneuvered his jetpack over and gently let himself down onto the platform. He then whipped off his net, folded it up neatly, and deposited it inside his backpack. Walter put his backpack on, then leaned casually against the side of the monument, waiting. Suddenly, metal cuffs came from inside the platform, and fit themselves snugly around his shoes.
"What the-"
But Walter could get no more words out, for the wall he had been leaning against split into two, and he had to regain his balance. The platform receded slowly into the wall and the doors shut behind it, leaving Walter staring into empty darkness.
"Holy c-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
The platform shot down at the speed of light, trailing Walter behind it, who was screaming his lungs to pieces. Walter began to get used to the speed and started panting instead of screaming. The platform began to slow down, till it skidded to a stop in front of a door. A very reflective door. Walter saw that he was quite a sight. His combed hair was standing straight up, and the minimal amount of hair gel he had applied helped it stay that way. He had picked up a couple of cobwebs on the way down, and his eyes were the size of dinner plates. He was having a difficult time getting them to go back to normal. He began to pick off the dust and web bits, but then the door opened
And there stood Ms. Jenkins. The woman he had sent his application to. She was the one who had shown an interest in him and given him an interview.
"Walter Beckett, I assume," she drawled.
"Y-Yes, ma'am. That's me." Walter offered a quick dip of his head to show his respect for such an accomplished woman like her. She raised an eyebrow.
"Follow me." She turned around and made to walk away.
"U-Um, excuse me?" She turned her head back to him. Walter pointed to his feet.
"I can't move." The corners of her lips perked up in an almost-but-not-quite-smile. She raised her arm and rotated a button on the sleeve of her button-down blouse. The cuffs retreated into the ground.
"That should be better, I expect." Walter hurriedly stepped off the platform, looking back at it as if it might eat him. She turned back around and went through the door. Walter followed her. Walter had spent hours imagining what the inside of H.T.U.V. would look like. He was slightly disappointed because there was only a desk, glass, and a potted plant on it. There was a plush comfy chair on rollers behind it, and a hard plastic chair in front. Walter dutifully took his seat in the hard plasticky one. "Soooooo. Walter." Walter shifted his eyes around the room. The paint was grey and metallic. There were no windows. An air-conditioning vent was positioned about 2 feet directly above his head. Should the situation get hostile, he could probably click on his jetpack and get through that vent before- what was he thinking? It was a job interview, not a hostage negotiation! He couldn't help himself. He always tried to make sure there was a way out of a situation, in case something happened. "Walter!" Ms. Jenkins snapped her fingers. Walter dragged his attention back to her. This is my future at stake! he reminded himself.
"Yes, yes, I'm so sorry!" He rushed.
"No problem," Ms. Jenkins said, "But we have an interview to conduct." She circled around the desk and sat in the plush chair. Crossing her legs, she said, "May I look at your inventions?"
"My inventions? Of course!" Walter took off his backpack and dumped an array of colorful plastic trinkets in front of her. She picked up a small Rubik's cube and looked at it with a hint of disdain.
"You claim to have invented the Rubik's cube?" Walter snatched it back and began to turn its cubes in a specific pattern. Right left up left down right up down left left left left down right up up up…
"I find it easier for me to hide my inventions within others." He reached the end of his pattern. The Rubik's cube began to glow and tremble in his hands. At the last second, he remembered Ms. Jenkins, and ducked beneath her desk, pulling her down with him. He threw the Rubik's cube out from under the desk. Its cubes started flashing individually, blinking in a pattern. Faster and faster, they blinked, then, suddenly the cube went dark.
POOF. The room was covered in shots of color. The compressed colored powder that Walter had packed into each of the cubes the night before had jetted out in long streams. The grey walls were now frosted with turquoise, magenta, sunshine yellow, deep forest green, and a hundred other colors. The dead shell of the Rubik's cube lay in the center of the room.
A small cough came from next to Walter. Ms. Jenkins was blasted full in the face with indigo powder. " Oh! I'm sorry! I forgot to tell you to curl in on your face!" He stood up and pulled Ms. Jenkins out from under the desk. She wiped off her glasses and looked around the room.
"How did you fit all those colors in that small cube?"
"Wh-what? Oh, I used a custom-made stick to pack it down and compressed two different colors in each cube. I put a small, non-lethal blasting cap in the center that's activated when the Rubik's cube turns in a certain way. It took a long time because I had to alter the Rubik's cube a lot to get it to work."
"Fascinating. What else do you have?" Walter jumped and raced to his backpack. He pulled out a small container of bubbles, complete with a bubble-blowing stick.
"Here's my latest invention. I call it Binder Bubbles. The bubbles produced are strong enough to contain the blast from torpedos." Walter chuckled. "When I was testing them, Lovey, my pet pigeon, was stuck inside a bubble for 4 hours before it popped. This formula lasts for two or three minutes before popping."
Ms. Jenkins took the bottle and blew a bubble around the potted plant. The bubble lifted the plant into the air, and Ms. Jenkins grabbed it. She shook it back and forth. She tried to rip it apart with her fingers. She held it until it popped, and the plant fell back into her hands.
"I have more stuff if you want to see it," Walter said.
"No, this is quite enough," Ms. Jenkins answered. "Walter, sit down." Walter nervously took his seat. He stood up, and wiped the powder off his butt and chair, and then sat down again. Ms. Jenkins remained standing. "Walter Beckett, I would like to offer you a job at H.T.U.V." Walter's face turned red, and his mouth morphed into a smile so big his cheeks hurt.
"Thank you," he whispered, breathless.
"You have talent, Walter. Your weapons will be able to incapacitate our enemies with minimal damage to civilians and your fellow agents." Walter wanted to point out that they wouldn't hurt the bad guys either, but he didn't want to risk losing the job he just got.
"Thank you, ma'am. I really needed this job."
"Anyone who would pass up on hiring you would be an imbecile. I'm glad you applied. Now follow me. We'll go downstairs and find you an office." Walter looked down in wonder.
"You mean, there's more down there?" he asked. Ms. Jenkins chuckled
"Much, much more."