Junior Hero

Part 2

The second thing I built was a remote for the first. This took about an hour.

Basically, it was a 'come-here' button, mounted on a wristwatch base. But before I could even use it, I had to update and improve the teleport device.

I rigged up a harness so that Device Number One, or D-1, clipped into a bracket more or less in the centre of my chest, in easy reach of either hand. And then I went to work on D-1.

Typing in coordinates each time I wanted to jump was going to be tiresome, even if I seemed to now have a natural affinity for distances and angles and suchlike. So I cheated. I threw in a GPS locator, and tied in the waypoint register to the keypad. One extra button, and voila! All I had to do was hit the waypoint button, it would store that point in memory. Hit the 'return' button in conjunction with a waypoint number, and it would calculate the coordinates and return me to that point.

Theoretically.

I had to do one more thing before I field tested this thing in earnest. Pulling D-1 apart a third time - much more of this and I would have to get a bigger casing, again - I started calibrating its mass sensors.

See, normally, it would grab whatever that was touching it, up to a certain limit. I had this figured to be about one good-sized adult, or about one and a half times my weight and volume. Whatever it grabbed, would go along with it, which was why on my first test I went with, instead of standing there while D-1 fell to the floor ten feet away.

If I was going to use D-2 (aka: "the Remote") I might need to dial down the mass sensors to zero. This wasn't hard; in the process, I figured that I could also dial them all the way up to about the mass of ten adults, but that would burn it out so hard. I made a mental note about that, but it would very much be a Hail Mary pass.

Once I had D-1 sorted out, I pulled open D-2 and made sure that it was all compatible with the changes in D-1. It wasn't, but a few extra modifications fixed that up.

So then I was ready for my first field test.

Standing in the middle of my bedroom, I pressed the waypoint button and stored that in memory 1. Then, hiding D-1 under my jacket, I told Mom I was going for a walk.

"That's fine, dear," she replied absently. "Just be back in time for dinner."

I kissed her on the cheek, and went out into the back yard. Reaching into my jacket, I waypointed again, then took a deep breath and pressed Return and memory 1.

When my eyes cleared, I was standing in my bedroom.

I fist-pumped just a little bit at this point, but I didn't move around too much. My bedroom was over the kitchen, and I didn't want Mom wondering why I was upstairs again.

I hit Return and memory 2, and pow! In the back yard again. Just like that.

This Tinker stuff was frickin' awesome.

I had an idea then, and I pulled out the notebook and jotted it down. Then I opened the side gate and headed out.

While I walked along, I found myself assembling Device 3 in my head. Sort of like a mine that you stepped on, which would teleport you wherever it was set, and would stay were it was. It would require cut-out circuitry to keep the device from being carried along in the teleport field, but that was doable. I could see the cops putting these down at a riot or whatever, and whoever stepped on it would end up in a holding area.

I put the notebook away when I reached Kate's place.

What, you thought I was walking aimlessly? Yeah, right.

I hadn't forgotten good old D-1 either; I had hit the waypoint button a few times on the walk, where I could appear out of thin air and not really be noticed. But that was work; this was play.

I knocked on the door; she answered. Tall, slim, good-looking, coffee skin, long black hair. Flashing Latina eyes. I think her family was Puerto Rican or something. It wasn't something I was worried about. She was a nice girl. They were good folks.

"Hey, you," she greeted me with a smile.

"Hey, you," I answered wittily.

"What are you doing over here?"

"Just walking around the neighbourhood, thought I'd drop in and say hi."

The amusement in her eyes told me that she wasn't buying it for one second. But she turned her head and called back into the house, "Mom! Rob's here. Is it okay if he comes in?"

Kate's mother, a slightly shorter and dumpier version of her daughter, appeared in the kitchen doorway. "Hello, Roberto. Come, come in. It is nice to see you. Staying for dinner?"

I grinned; she always called me 'Roberto'. I think it was her way of saying that she liked me. "Sorry, Mrs H. Mom's already got it cooking at home. I just came over to spend some time with Kate, if that's okay?"

She rolled her eyes. "Always spending time with my Catalina, and not with me. Shoo, shoo, go. Be with my daughter. Leave me alone and forgotten in the kitchen."

Kate and I both laughed, and Kate kissed her mother on the cheek. "We'll be upstairs, Mom. We'll leave the door open."

Mrs Hernando shook her wooden spoon at me. "You make sure you do. Or this is for you."

I mimed fear; it was Kate's turn to roll her eyes. "Oh, Mom. Rob's a good boy, not like the others. Aren't you, Rob?"

I shrugged. I could not deny that I was just as interested as any other boy my age, but Dad and Mom had instilled a fairly complete set of morals into me - possibly by drawing on their college experiences and going "don't do that". So I wasn't a skirt-chaser. I liked Kate; I liked her a lot. But I knew there were lines we shouldn't cross, not until we were mature enough to handle the potential consequences.

Mom and Dad, after all, had had to get married in an awful hurry after Mom discovered she was pregnant with me. That was a cautionary tale that had already been drummed into me.

We trotted up the stairs to Kate's bedroom, carefully leaving the door open as promised. Kate plumped herself down on the bed; I sat beside her.

My jacket fell open; I had forgotten to fasten it. That was when she saw D-1 in its chest harness.

"Rob?" she asked. "What's this?"

I cursed myself; in hindsight, it seemed obvious that visiting Kate would end up in physical closeness. But damn it, I had also forgotten about D-1 being under my jacket.

And then I wondered if some part of me had not set this up deliberately, just so Kate would find out. Because I wanted to share my secret with someone. And Kate was the coolest person I knew.

"I, um ... Kate, you can't tell anyone about this," I told her seriously. "Anyone. At all. Ever."

"About what?" she asked. "What is it?"

I unclipped D-1 from its bracket on the harness. From the original configuration, it was now about eight inches across, two inches thick, and quite heavy. I wasn't quite sure where the extra weight came from; I suspected that when it was activated, mass from another universe crept in. Or something. Remember, I suck at physics.

Kate held it in her slim, delicate hands, staring at it. "Rob," she whispered. "What does it do?"

I held up a finger. "Allow me to demonstrate." I clipped it back into the harness, stood up, and hit the buttons to store her bedroom in my waypoint memory. Then I closed my jacket and headed out into the hallway and along to the bathroom. Kate went to follow, but I waved her back to the bed.

Once I was in the bathroom, I pressed the buttons to return me to the last waypoint.

At this point, it should have been obvious what was going to happen. In hindsight, sure. But I was a teenage boy trying to impress his girlfriend. And so I went ahead and did it.

I appeared in Kate's bedroom, right in front of her. She squealed so loudly that I was temporarily deafened.

"Sh-sh-shhh!" I hissed desperately. Kate was staring at me, eyes wide.

"What is going on up there?" called out Mrs Hernando. "Catalina, are you all right?" I heard her coming up the stairs, fast.

Suppressing the impulse to jump back to another waypoint - any waypoint - I zipped my jacket and sat on the end of the bed, well away from Kate.

"Yes, Mom," Kate managed, just as her mother entered the bedroom. Short and dumpy she may have been, but I would not have wanted to deal with her for any money, right at that point. Forget a woman scorned; hell hath no fury like a mother whose child is threatened. "Rob just - just -" Her imagination failed her at this moment, and she stared at me helplessly.

"What did you do, Robert?" asked Mrs Hernando, shaking the wooden spoon threateningly. I noticed the lack of 'Roberto' and knew I had to make it good.

"I, uh, told her some of the gossip that's been going around school," I improvised hastily. "Word is, some Wards are getting transferred into Clarendon."

Which was purest bull-puckey, as far as I knew. Arcadia was the school that Wards went to, as far as the gossip went. But it sounded good, or at least I hoped it did.

"Wards?" asked Mrs Hernando, suspiciously.

I shrugged. "Kate's a bit of a cape geek, aren't you, Kate?"

"Uh - yeah," Kate backed me up. "I love them. I wonder who might be coming over. It'll be so cool."

Which sounded weak to me, but seemed to pass muster with Kate's mother. She eyed me suspiciously, then gave Kate a once-over that noted the exact position of every stitch of her clothing, and ascertained that nothing was out of place.

With a sniff, she turned to leave. "Good," she told us. "Do not frighten me again like that, Roberto."

"I'll try not to," I told her, very sincerely indeed.

As her mother's footsteps descended the stairs once more, Kate turned to me.

"What did you do, Rob?" she whispered. "How did you do that?"

And so I told her.

End of Part 2