Author: Lady Rosebit

Rating: G

Disclaimer: Trust me: Atlantis would be a VERY strange world if I owned it.

a/n: This was inspired by the episode 'Underground' when McKay mentions that he made a nuclear bomb for his 6th grade science fair, and was taken in for questioning.

I have no clue where in Canada McKay lived. I have chosen to have him live in the town my best friend lives in.

As I do not know how to build a bomb, know nothing about physics, and my mom (for some unknown reason) won't let me look it up on the internet. Any techno babble is totally made up, probably using non-existent words or words that have nothing to do with the subject that I thought sounded cool.

Exp.

I'm about to add the plutonium to the tryocata and the gelignite.

Key

"Speach"

Thoughts

An eleven-year-old Rodney McKay, dressed only in a T-shirt and pants, sat on a stool in a shed, bent over a table covered in machine parts. Most people who lived in Red Deer, Alberta Canada would never be in a shed in the middle of winter. The last year Rodney had created a heater that ran on very little energy. It had won him the last science fair. In fact, Rodney had won every science fair since 1st grade.

This year was different.

Rodney had always been considered the smartest kid in the school. Sure, he probably was the one with the least amount of friends, but he was still smarter that everyone else. This year a girl named Clare Tobias moved in from the United States. Every test, every project, every grade, since then she had beaten him. Maybe only by a point, but she was still beating him.

There was no way he would let her beat him in the science fair. The science fair was his specialty. He had been searching for the perfect project. One no one else his age would dare. He was going to build an atomic bomb.

Let Clare beat that.

Suddenly he was started out of his thoughts by a female voice. "Rodney dear, don't forget to shovel the snow off the walk." Rodney's mom called, opening the door to the shed.

Rodney quickly pulled a sheet over the table. He groaned. "Mom, don't just walk in like that. You could have startled me into shocking myself! Besides, I can shovel later. I'm almost done making my solar-powered dishwasher!"

"Rodney, there's no electricity in the shed other than the heater. There's no way you could have electrocuted yourself. I respect the fact that you want to get your science fair project done, but you promised you'd shovel the snow today."

"Give me five minutes, okay?"

"Fine, but if you're not out there in five minutes, I won't let you watch the hockey tournament tonight."

Rodney watched as his mother closed the door. He didn't turn back to his work until he was sure she had made it back to the house.

That was close. He thought, Mom usually supports my interest in science, but she'd kill me if she found out I was making a bomb. Heck, she'd kill me if she found out I was using a home-made generator to power electric power tools.

"Now, where was I..." Rodney muttered to himself. It was a good thing she had let him have that time. He had been in the middle of stabilizing the plutonium and gelignite. If he didn't work now, the trinitrotoluene could implode, creating a spark which would light the necarcerator. That would cause an explosion that would destroy the whole house.

There was no way his mother would have let him do this.

a/n: Okay, I know this is kinda short, but I'm just testing the waters. I do plan to continue. Feel free to give ideas, suggestions. Maybe about what science project Clara Tobias should do?

Oh, and a chocolate bar to anyone who can figure out where I got Clara Tobias from. No, she is not an OC. I do not own her.