Sunday April 10th

3.

I woke early and went straight back to work on the computer ensuring that the sound was muted. Thankfully the keyboard was near silent, the benefit of having a father who cares about noise for his work.

My hit rate with the code before pay jobs was significantly better than expected with all but one of the companies actually forking out a little money and offering me contract work. Either I had underestimated my skill at programming, or I had overestimated the competition. I did worry for a moment that I was showing a level of skill that could be at obvious parahuman levels, but I then applied my intelligence to compare my code with other publicly available code and determined that as long as you didn't factor in the speed at which the code was written it was only in the top quarter. I'd determined to be very careful to ensure that I submitted any code after a reasonable time frame, so that shouldn't raise any alerts there.

It wouldn't make much sense for someone to approach dad, even via email, on the weekend but time zones did allow some leeway. So, whilst I couldn't enact that part yet it wouldn't hurt to feel some of the online work jobs out. I did some research into the online jobs that would suit dad's skills and was a little disappointed in the overall quality. I really didn't want to have to make up fake work. I hoped those jobs that I could find might actually be like the code before pay jobs where people were using them to scout talent. That'd make it a bit harder to manage but not impossible.

It didn't take too long to get a bunch of dad's references together and get them prepared and sent out to a few potentials. It made it a lot easier that dad was a bit paranoid about his digital presence and there was no public emails or numbers out there with his contact information. I realized that I had elected myself as his unofficial agent that took a negative cut of his pay. Could be a bit embarrassing if it ever came to light but as long as dad never felt the need to sell one of his guitars or audio equipment, I could deal with that.

A gentle tap at the door had me quickly switch my browser to a website showing second-hand drum kits for sale.

"Yeah?"

"Do you feel like some breakfast?" Mum asked through the door.

I stared down at the half dozen empty muesli bar wrappers that I had already devoured that morning and yet my stomach growled at the thought of more food.

"Oh yes please. Be right out." I said as I threw some clothes on. I almost went to make my bed and decided that might be going too far.

As it was, my showing up not in my pyjamas for breakfast got me some raised eyebrows. I didn't have a good explanation, so I just pretended I didn't notice. Thankfully that would be as close as I could get to my previous lack of awareness. I decided I was going to have to put a bit more thought it each action and make sure I didn't rush anything.

"Pancakes. Sweet. Thanks mum." I smiled; she obviously was going out of her way to treat me today. I guessed I could probably get away with doing things a little different for a time after the accident.

"How are you feeling?"

I considered that for a bit before answering after I finished a mouthful of deliciousness, "Feel good. Can I go to the market?" I was very tempted to elaborate on my reasons but that wouldn't have been in character. Taciturn was more my previous style even though it'd drag out the conversations beyond any sense of reasonableness. Reviewing my previous conversations my mind with my parents in my mind I was struck by a sense of pride in just how caring they could be with such a son as I had been and, unfortunately, would continue to act like until I could realistically change my behaviour.

"The market? Why do you want to go there?"

The confusion was understandable. Old Sparky generally had to be forced out of the house unless it was for music practice or performance, at least I had a ready excuse for that.

"Check prices of kits. Look for a job." I shrugged and pretended to focus on my pancakes.

"Oh…"

There was a long pause and I hoped that it was her coming to the realisation that I was being practical in my approach to my lost treasure and that this was in character. I had heaps of reference material for how I had acted in most normal situations and was sure I could mostly keep in character. But how old me would have acted after the a car accident, receiving parahuman healing and losing the one thing I seemingly cared about above all was new ground.

"Do you need a lift?"

I shrugged, "There is a bus there, right?"

My mother just nodded, and I could see out of the corner of my eye that she had pursed her lips. "I'll see if your sister has any plans."

That wasn't exactly ideal but staying in character I just nodded without looking up.

I wasn't exactly sure if she planned to drive us both but, in the end, Tracy was keen to visit without parental attention and so I was escorted with clear instructions on where and when to meet after a few hours so she could go off and spend time with some friends there. I was impressed that within fifteen minutes she had already arrange for a small posse to meet her there.

I also had been given one of dad's old cell phones, 'in case I got lost', but more likely so someone could call me when I didn't turn up where I was supposed to. I decided I would be at least in sight of where I was supposed to be as that wouldn't be out of character.

I was a bit surprised we had an unused phone with a plan given our lack of funds. Presumably an emergency pre-paid backup plan from the better days or had been specifically bought for me but just never handed over. It wasn't like I made a habit of going out after all and those that I spent time with, the band, all had phones and were a lot more reliable than me.

Lord Street Market was both busier and larger than I expected. It had been over a couple of years since I had been dragged along and my memories of it were only from a small corner. I made a good effort to get an overview of it before I focused on that day's goals. Both of which I had been honest to my mum about.

First was the job board. An enterprising young man had purchased a long lease on a nice central location a number of years ago and had put of a number of pin boards and offered posting space for one to ten dollars for the week depending on how large your advert was. As he cleared the board every Thursday night you could be sure that all the ads were relatively recent. He had boards for looking for work, jobs available, lost and found, rentals, items for sale, and people looking to buy things.

I glanced at the items for sale and noted the lone overpriced drum kit listed before moving to the job board. Ideally, I wanted to find an internet café where I could legitimately work a few hours and then pad my wage with online programming. Any job would do as far as the cash was concerned but having the ability to send emails and maybe even do a little programming at the same time would be even better.

Almost all of the jobs for under eighteens were for working in café kitchens, retail shops or bicycle delivery. The one that was of most interest was a Saturday and Sunday morning shift at a computer shop mostly handing repair requests and paperwork for the sales and repair staff. They were requesting sixteen plus but I was pretty sure with my experience working contract music sessions and my boosted intelligence that wouldn't be a hassle. There was no legal difference that I was aware of, and I wasn't that far of sixteen anyhow.

It'd be easy to get there on the bus, not even that far out of the way when heading home so I pulled out the mobile and made a call. Within ten minutes I had a meeting organised for after school on Monday.

Mum had given us each a twenty, both me and Tracy had been very surprised by that. I put it down to her just being so happy that I was okay and didn't want to be unfair to my older sister. We certainly hadn't complained.

A quarter of that went on a loaded hot dog and some coke. The rest went on a pair of tom's that were in pretty rough condition, an old jacket, and a roll of heavy duty cord with which I was sure I could to a rough patch on the drums. I wondered for a bit if it would be possible to retrieve any of the bits from my old kit. Surely some of the parts were recoverable such as the clamps and pads.

With no more money to spend and two medium sized drums to cart around I went and found a seat in view of the corner we had arranged to meet at and let my mind drift as I tapped out a few beats. The sound was pretty poor, so I grabbed a branch off a nearby bush and a few pieces of the decorative bark beneath it and using the cord I picked earlier I made some spot repairs to the drums.

Not having a screwdriver on any tools to make the needed adjustments I pulled out a loose nail and with loose stick made a makeshift tool to retention the drum.

Ten minutes later I found myself tapping out a beat on a pair of mid-range drums that probably hadn't ever sounded as good. When a few coins landed on the old jacket that I had left laying with my new tool and string I realised I had gathered a small audience.

"Yeah... thanks."

My mind wasn't so much on the additional source of revenue rather on the fact that I had repaired my drums with twigs, bark, and cord to a level that I couldn't have achieved with the correct components the week before. This was concerning on many levels, for one this certainly felt like something related to a parahuman power and I had done this in public, and secondly, I hadn't even realised how impossible it had been when I was doing it.

Thankfully looking the makeshift repairs looked more like decoration than functional components, just as well and trying to conceal them now would be ever more suspicious.

As I started a new beat a new and strange sensation stole over me. Like I was floating. Also, my vision was all messed up Though I could still clearly see the drums, the pavement, and the feet of people nearby over them was superimposed a dozen or more other locations. Over the real tiled brick pavement, I could see a neat timber floor, polished concrete, and a metal lattice work and a few others that were not immediately identifiable.

To the beat of my drums and as I still remained sitting on the bench the multitude of floors resolved itself into a single moving metal floor that rushed past me taking with it a range of strange devices, strange fences, futuristic scuba tanks and even sci-fi robots that look designed for deep sea salvage. It was like I someone was projecting a fully 3D room around me and then shifting my point of view at speed. I had no sensation of movement and the view rushed past barely given more a second to recognise shapes.

Careful not to panic and seeing that the people nearby weren't reacting in anyway I kept playing as the metal floor gave way to a digital environment reminiscent of a high resolution Tron set. As I sped through this environment digital representations and plans to create game controllers, holo projectors and all sorts of futuristic computer components passed by me.

Next came a concrete floor with benches and all the tools a good workshop needed. Racks of hand tools, drill presses, saws, and other pieces of equipment I'd only see on the Discovery channel. Then it too was gone, and I was taken into a simple room with timber floors and point of view halted in the middle of the room.

I risked a glance around seeing both the small audience I had gathered and the various people walking in and out of the market with what looked like a small timber floored office overlayed on top. Both were clear to me even though they inhabited the same space in my view. Though I could see market goers that were on both sides of the office wall it didn't seem as if the wall was transparent. Just that they took up the same area of my vision. Something I would have to think more about later.

The office had plain off white walls, a single door and two windows on adjacent walls that looked out onto a grey sky. A simple desk and chair stood opposite the door with the only thing of note being a framed scroll handing beside the door with a series of Japanese characters that I knew translated roughly to 'They are Mine and Mine Alone'. This even though I knew not a single Japanese character and could barely say hello and thank you in the language.

Following this came the realisation that my power, my increased intelligence, and my ability to supplement inferior parts to an impossible degree was something that could never be taken away from me, not be any trump, power stealer or accident. This however didn't feel like an extension on my intelligence, this felt like a whole new power with a source that whilst associated with what I had previously was also somehow quite different. I had a sense that if I hadn't been near death when I gained my greater intelligence, I would have had a similar vision then.

With that the vision ended and I noted a set of feet much closer than the others and a voice calling my name, "Come on Sparky! Snap out of it."

My drumming trailed of as I looked up to see my sister standing there waiting for me, a couple of her friends giggling behind her.

"Oh... hey."

"Not a bad haul but we need to get going." She reached down and picked up one of the toms. "I never took you for the full on hippy, but the leaves do work with your hair."

I gathered my tools, jacket along with the nearly twenty dollars and the second tom my thoughts still on the new revelations about my power.

I realised I now had two distinct aspects to my power. Maybe they should be called sub powers? One, my intelligence boost somehow included the ability to use parts from plants or more generically, inferior parts, to repair and build technology. This felt like both a Thinker and Shaker power combined but might also be classified as a Tinker. I decided I would need to do more research on the tinker fugue that I had heard mention of as that could be very problematic. Second, now I had an immunity to power stealers. This didn't seem like such a big deal however it did open up one very important question. Were those other rooms possible sub powers, as they sure felt like it, and if so, does that mean one day I would also get access to those powers as well? Did that mean I was a trump as well?

I think I thanked my sister and mum before heading to my room where I set up my two drums and started playing as my mind went over everything that had happened again and again.

Celestial Forge Perk - They are mine and mine alone - Medaka Box Abnormal - 400cp