For those who are reading: Id like to hear your thoughts and criticisms. If theres anything people want to see more of, less of, or just general thoughts, let me know. Either use the review slot of even send me a PM. Cheers mates.
Felicity looked up from the computer screens to see Jacob circling around the table, picking components up and writing things down on the paper in front of him. She couldn't make out what he wrote, so she stood up and slowly walked over towards him. He had a variety of circuit boards, electrical wires and diodes laid out at odd angles with the paper sitting in the middle.
"Whatchu doing?" she asked, picking up the piece of paper and trying to decipher his scrawling handwriting.
"Building something," he muttered, snatching it back and scribbling another line down.
"I can see that," she snorted, looking over the assortment of parts and wires.
"Soldering iron?" he asked, looking around and then at her.
"Over there," she pointed, as he turned around and snatched it up.
He plugged it in, waiting a few minutes before grabbing a few circuit boards and connecting a series of wires to them. Sitting them around a center block, he grabbed up a few more pieces, deftly manipulating them and attaching more wires.
"Well i guess i'll leave you to it," Felicity muttered, backing away.
He nodded in response, disassembling a few more pieces and splicing them together oddly. She walked back to her computer chair, keeping a watchful eye on him as she sat down.
The elevator doors dinged and slid open. Curtis gave a cheery wave to Felicity and walked over to sit beside her.
"Whos…?" He asked pointing over to where Jacob was.
"New guy," she explained, clattering away at her keyboard. "Different earth, Laurels adopted son, Oliver's son technically, long story."
"Wait, wait, wait.." he sputtered. "Laurel and Oliver's son? What's he doing here? How'd he get here?"
"You know how cisco can make those blue portal things?" she asked sighing.
"Breaches?" He asked frowning. "Yeah i know of them in theory. Never actually seen one myself."
"Well apparently another Cisco, on another earth, made one and out popped our friend over there."
"Can i talk to him? Is he dangerous? Should we be worried about what he's building?" he asked, peering over to the table and looking him over.
"Good luck, i tried before you came in." She mumbled, looking over some files she pulled up on one screen. "Seems to be pretty immersed in whatever hes building."
"Worth a shot then," he said with a smile before bouncing up and walking over to Jacob.
Jacob now had a tower of parts spliced together on the table, scratching things out on his paper as he went. Curtis slowly walked over.
"Hi there," he said cheerily giving a small wave. "I'm…."
"Curtis Holt," Jacob finished before he could introduce himself. "Yes i know. Inventor, scientist, bronze medal olympian, Mr Terrific, and by the looks of it, recently separated."
"How…" Curtis sputtered, a confused look on his face. "How did you know all that?"
"I knew a Curtis Holt on my earth," He explained, looking up for a second. "That and there's an indent on your ring finger still."
"Oh," Curtis sighed, looking down at his now bare ring finger. "Paul...left me over all of this. What about you? I don't see a ring on your finger."
"I.."Jacob started, setting down his tools and stopping for a second. "Lost her."
"Ah. Well," He stammered, changing the subject. "What're you building? It looks like you've got the beginnings of a signal amplifier and a frequency generator."
"Basically yea," Jacob agreed with a wave to the parts. "Best i can scrounge together from what they have here."
"I have a bunch of spare parts from mine and felicity's days in Palmer Tech," he offered, looking over the mismatch and reading a few items off the paper list. "They're in a crate in the cabinet."
He walked over to a row of cabinets, opened a lower door and pulled out a medium sized wooden crate filled with an assortment of circuit boards, half metal spheres, and other mechanical parts. With a thud and a few metallic clanks, he sat the crate down on the table. Felicity looked up and smiled as Jacob started pulling random pieces from the crate and assembling them into his mass.
"Say i wanted to send a program or a series of commands over a signal, or wirelessly upload them to a mainframe," Jacob started, soldering together a few more connections. "What would you suggest i use?"
"Thats simple," Curtis laughed, picking up half of a discarded T-Sphere. "Miniaturized quantum computer. Tie that directly into your signal amplifier along with some choice coding and you're set."
Jacob grabbed the half sphere out of his hand and started looking over the inside components, scratching down a few notes before pulling a few wires free from his tangle.
"What are you trying to broadcast, or upload to?" Curtis asked skeptically.
"Lets just say," Jacob muttured. "Hypothetically, i would be broadcasting a signal and piggybacking a series of command codes to upload a subroutine into a quantum computer that would make your T-Sphere look like an ipod."
"Would this supercomputer happen to be The Waverider?" he asked, giving Jacob a skeptical look. "Hypothetically."
Jacob sat the circuit board down and looked up at Curtis.
"Dont judge me," he grumbled. "I read Felicity's files on you guys. You should know exactly how it feels to want to make something better from the bad situation you're in, and have Oliver shoot you down."
"Woah easy man," Curtis replied, holding his hands up. "No judgement from me. Though you might want to heal up a little before you try any training like Olivers."
He pointed to Jacobs chest where a small patch of blood stained gauze showed through.
"I'll be fine," Jacob replied, brushing it off. "You're a programmer here as well right? If i give you a basic layout for a subroutine and line or two of command codes can you write me a program that will run them?"
"Is an asymmetric encryption the easiest to hack?" he asked grinning.
"Ill take that as a yes." Jacob nodded, resuming his motley sculpture.
Curtis gave jacob a weird look before shaking his head and walking over to another table. He picked up a tablet and started tapping away at it.
'You're going to need this," Jacob pointed out to him as he scratched a few things down on another sheet of paper. He handed it to him.
"Are you…?" Curtis asked.
"Yes, that phrase exactly within those parameters," Jacob finished, pulling the insides out of the half sphere and looking them over.
"Right." Curtis replied with a wince.
Felicity gave Curtis a questioning look as he shrugged it off and waved it away in dismissal.
Curtis sat in a small black leather chair in the corner of the Arrow cave tapping away at his tablet. With a sigh of frustration, he sat it down and rubbed his eyes. The words "Simulation Failure' scrolled across the screen and blinked a few times.
"Problems?" Jacob called from across the room, his voice echoing in the silence.
"Just a couple lines of code not wanting to cooperate." Curtis feebly called back. "I need coffee."
He stood up and stretched, noticing Felicity wasn't in her usual spot.
"Guess im not the only one," He chuckled. "You want something?"
"Nah," Jacob replied with a mumble, staring at his contraption. "I'm good."
"Don't know how you do it," Curtis replied, walking towards the elevator. "It's been 38 hours man. How are you still standing?"
"Sheer force of will," Jacob shrugged, ripping out a wire and connecting it to a new location.
Curtis laughed and shook his head, jumping into the elevator with a wave. Jacob connected another wire and spun the jumbled machinery around a few times.
"That should do it," He mumbled to himself.
His finger hesitated over a small switch before flicking it on. With a low hum and a whir of electricity, the contraption sparked to life. A small screen he installed illuminated and displace a very numbers before a small dial appeared with a frequency scale beside it. He smiled in triumph, flipping the switch back off and causing the machine to slowly power down. With a few movements of stretching, he walked over to where Curtis had previously sat and picked up his tablet. He flicked the flashing message off the screen and looked over the lines of code. A few lines stuck out, and after reading them a couple of times, he changed their variables. He quickly scrolled through the rest, nodding in satisfaction before pushing a button to run the scenario. After a few minutes of calculating and lines scrolling by, a new message popped up.
'Simulation Complete.'
Without hesitation, he ran over to felicity's workstation and grabbed a portable hard drive. Plugging it in, he tapped a few buttons and uploaded the program to it. Unplugging the portable drive and placing it in his pocket. He hesitated for a second before scrolling through the menu, looking for a way to erase it from the tablet.
"Im sorry, Curtis," He said out loud before hitting the delete accept button.
A second later the program was gone completely.
He grabbed a box, sat his contraption inside and tapped it shut. Pulling a sheet of crumpled paper out from underneath a scatter of wire, he scrawled a note.
If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door.
With a sigh, he sat it on Felicity's keyboard and headed for the stairs. Taking the hidden exit to street level would ensure his chances of not running into Curtis on the way back.
Thankfully the city was laid out exactly the same on his earth, making it an easy task to locating the train station. No one seemed to notice Him as he briskly walked through the streets. He entered the building, blending right in with the crowds of people scattering about. In the center of the terminal stood a large sign with train comings and goings. He stopped in front of it, securing the box underneath his arm and scanned down through the list. His eyes stopped as he found the perfect one, heading off in the direction of the platform
The train groaned to a halt, a series of tones playing over the loudspeaker as people surged out of the opening doors. After a few minutes, people began shuffling back onto the train. Jacob blended in with them, slipping inside and making his way to one of the cargo compartments. Finding it empty of people, he sought out a corner, moving a few other boxes and crates. He squeezed his way in, hauling a box in front of him while making enough room to sit.
"Next stop," he heard the muffled conductors voice shout. "Central City Direct."
With a smile, Jacob pulled a tarp from on top of the nearby box over his head, cloaking himself in shadow as he waited.