Chapter Twenty-Three: Preparing for College
Lincoln was packing up his things. He would be leaving for Illinois soon. He would be going away to college. His sisters were spending a lot more time with him, making sure to have memories with him. He was trying to spend time with Jordan and Stella so that they would have memories together as well. But he also was writing and drawing up new comic ideas. He had multiple comics that he posted on his website.
He sighed, opening up another box. Lisa had created boxes that were as light as cardboard but as strong as aluminum. He had to pack things carefully. He wanted to make sure that his dorm room wasn't overloaded. The main things he was packing were clothes, his LoudTech Laptop, writing supplies, his tablet and a photo album. He knew he would be spending most of his time away from Royal Woods and he wanted to be able to remember his family. But he also had some posters that he was packing. Some were signed by Bill Buck himself and had Ace Savvy characters on them.
One was of Ace Savvy and the Full Deck Gang. It had been signed by Bill Buck. He had sent two copies of the poster, asking Lincoln and his sisters to sign the second one. Lincoln and his sisters had signed both and now Lincoln had a poster with all those signatures on it. That was definitely his favorite of his posters. He also had a poster for a comic that he was working on at the moment called Numina. It was about a dystopian world where bionics had been used by the upper class to become superior humans. They now lived longer, were stronger, faster, smarter and more durable than 'inferior humans'.
Lincoln sighed. He needed to take a break from packing. So he went out for a run. His speed had improved of late. His Neurotech had helped him with that. It had been a bit of a recovery time for him, but once he was able to walk straight and not stumble on the stairs, Lisa let him go back to doing some exercise. He felt bad in a way. Lynn, who had worked hard all her life to get this level of fitness, and he was nearing her level through various cheat codes. He knew Lynn was by far the better athlete though because her talent was all her. Lincoln could have been in the Olympics if he wanted to.
But he never wanted to do that. Athletics wasn't his career goal. He went out for a run though just to clear his head, running five miles around Royal Woods. He checked out everything that he used to love doing, that he still loved doing. Things had changed a lot. The arcade had been taken over by a chain restaurant. Flip's had been taken over by a chain arcade. Chain businesses had moved into Royal Woods and were turning the place into a very different place than it had been just a few years ago. Lincoln missed the small town that it had been.
He didn't even know how it had become such a city so quickly. Sure, there had been a part of Royal Woods that was city-like. But it had been a small city. That city had spread into the suburb and now the police force had had to be expanded to accommodate the new crime that had grown with the city. Lincoln sighed. He'd considered using his enhanced abilities to become a vigilante, to protect the city like Ace Savvy would have done. But Lincoln knew that as advanced as Lisa's technology was, it wasn't likely that she would use it to help Lincoln fight crime in a costume.
He ran past the zoo, which was growing as well. Lana was still only 12, but she volunteered at the zoo and liked to show off how much she knew about the animals, especially the reptiles and fish. The grosser Lola thought the animals were, the more Lana loved them. He went into the zoo, running through the lions, which Lincoln especially loved. They were so strong and brave. The tigers, the kangaroos and other animals. He was going to miss his home. Only getting to see it on holidays and during the summer. Unless he chose to take classes during the summer so that he could finish college sooner.
But that would mean he wouldn't even get to see Jordan and Stella during the summer if he did. He had to think about it. He was going to talk to Lisa about donating a set of LoudTech Total Gyms to Northwestern University. He wasn't sure he could convince her to. But he would try. He started heading back to the house, sighing as he reached the mailbox. He checked to see what they had gotten that day. Not much. At least nothing good.
He took the mail into the house and went up to his room. His head was still swimming with thoughts about college, about leaving his home behind, about how he was going to miss Royal Woods. He dialed up Jordan and Stella, doing a conference call to talk to both of them at once.
"Hey, Linc!" Jordan said happily.
"Hi, Lincoln." Stella smiled.
"I just called to see how you were doing with packing up your stuff for college." Lincoln said.
"It's hard choosing which books to pack. Honestly, I'm thinking of just downloading books onto a tablet so that I can have them all in one place." Stella said.
"That's what I'm doing. Lisa gave me a LoudTech Tablet. I can just download any book I need, including textbooks onto it." Lincoln said.
"And Lisa made the tablet? Couldn't you just get like an iPad or something?" Jordan asked.
"Yeah, but the LoudTech Tablet is more advanced and Lisa gave it to me for free. Why not use it?" Lincoln shrugged. Lisa liked to have her family test her products before she put them out on the market.
"You really drew the long straw genetically, being born into the same family as the smartest scientist in the world." Jordan chuckled, shaking her head. Stella laughed as well.
"I'm sure Lisa would be happy to share her inventions with you two as well.
"She's certainly shared them with Bobby, Sam, Benny and other of our sisters' partners." Lincoln said. Jordan nodded.
"I'll definitely talk to her about it. I don't want to pressure her." Stella said kindly. She was sure that Lisa was very busy making new inventions and wouldn't be able to spend too much time making copies of her old inventions, even for Lincoln's girlfriends. Lincoln called Lisa's laptop through his Neurotech.
"Hello, Elder Brother. How can I help you? Make it quick. I'm on the verge of a breakthrough with nuclear fusion." Lisa said. Lincoln connected Stella and Jordan.
"Hi, Lisa. Do you have any more copies of your electronics?" Jordan asked.
"My Laptop, Tablet and Cell Phone? Yes. I have a good number of those. You're more than welcome to them." Lisa said coolly. Jordan grinned.
"Thanks. That'll make packing for college that much easier." The brunette said.
"Indeed. How are you liking the Neurotech that I gave you? Have you fully recovered from its implantation?" Lisa asked.
"We're doing well with it." Stella said. Her mind was firing like never before. She was making connections she never would have thought possible. Connections that, as smart as her parents were, even they didn't get.
"Good. Come over and I'll connect your Neurotech signature to your cell phone, tablet and laptop." Lisa said. She didn't have much spare time, but she could take half an hour to fully outfit them.
"Cool. When would be a good time for you to have us over?" Jordan asked.
"Well, come when you like. No time is really a good time right now. I'm very busy. But I can put aside a half hour for the two of you." Lisa said calmly.
"Lisa, you've done so much for us. You've given us bionics and this Neurotech stuff." Stella said.
"Think nothing of it." Lisa said before Stella could continue.
"My goal is to one day avail everyone in the world of my bionics and nanomachines. Different people will benefit to different extents from it. But nobody will be left unimproved by it. My hope is that everyone will have access to it, though unfortunately, human greed being a thing, some will try to profit off of it. I'm doing my best to prevent that from happening. But I'm only a scientist. I can choose not to patent it. I can sell it for a pittance.
"But Sir Fredrick Banting did the same when he managed to synthesize insulin. And look at the price of insulin now in America. Proof that human greed will take even things that should be a right for everyone and turn them into a chance to make money." Lisa said.
"You know, you're awfully cynical for a 10-year-old." Jordan said.
"Few ten-year-olds have my mental capabilities. Come over to get the electronics you want or don't. It makes no difference to me. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to work." Lisa said.
She hung up and started back on her calculations for achieving fusion. Containing it would be a whole different ball game. But for now, if she could achieve a fusion reaction that lasted for longer than five seconds, she would be satisfied.
"So, can I hope to see you two soon?" Lincoln asked hopefully.
"Yeah. I'll come over in about forty minutes?" Stella asked.
"I'll try to come over at about the same time." Jordan said. She had some changes to make in her packing.
The books that she was going to bring were no longer necessary.
"Bring a list of the books you need on your tablets and Lisa will make sure they're put in there." Lincoln said.
"She could even give you a library of every book you own if you want. Though given her time constraints right now, I recommend you keep the list short and sweet and have her tell you how to download more on your own later." Lincoln said.
"Okay." The two said together. They knew they were going to be within a few hours of each other. They would likely only be able to visit each other every once in a while. But it was better than nothing and they would still be able to keep in touch with Lincoln too hopefully. The girls wrote up a list of the books they wanted most, including their required textbooks and then headed over to Lincoln's house.
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"Hey, Jordan, Stella." Lincoln said, kissing each of them as they came in. They smiled at him.
"Good to see you, Loud." Jordan laughed, slapping him firmly on the back.
"Oof! You still have a strong arm there." Lincoln chuckled. Jordan laughed.
"Yeah. Well, I am on the soccer and lacrosse teams." Jordan said. She was really more of an athlete than an academic. But she wanted to be a history teacher. She'd hopefully be able to stay in shape, even with her most likely intense workload in college.
They went up to talk to Lisa, who put aside a huge pile of papers. She cursed loudly, putting the next sheaf of papers into a shredder. She had three extra large garbage bags worth of shredded paper in her room. They were going to recycle it. Lisa sighed, cradling her head in her hands. She was exhausted. She had been working for days on this equation. Between that and her university work, she was on the brink of collapsing.
"Lisa… What's wrong?" Stella asked gently, sitting down next to Lisa.
"Oh, nothing. I'm just a little bit tired." Lisa said.
"I'll be fine." She lied. She had injections that kept her going. But after four days, even the injections were starting to diminish in effectiveness.
"Lisa, don't lie to me. When was the last time you slept?" Lincoln asked.
"Four days ago." Lisa said.
"What! Nobody can stay up for four days straight!" Jordan exclaimed.
"With science, I can. I have serums that allow me to go a few days without sleep. They reduce the usual negative side effects of lack of sleep. But they're not working as well as they usually do right now. I haven't tested them for any longer than two days in the past." Lisa said.
"And you shouldn't even do that. Lisa, if you think you're up to it, take the half hour to set up Jordan's and Stella's electronics. Then get some sleep. I insist. Your work on nuclear fusion will still be there when you wake up, I assure you." Lincoln said. Lisa sighed, getting out a laptop and typing in the electronic signature for Stella's Neurotech. She then did the same on Jordan's computer. She used the laptops to connect to the cell phones and tablets, connecting the tablet and cell phone each to the girls' individual Neurotech.
"Okay, you should be all set. Here's a case to go with your laptop. I recommend you leave your laptop back at your dorm rooms and take your tablets to class with you. The tablet will connect best with your Neurotech while you're on the go and convert everything the teacher says into notes for you. It will then send the data back to your laptops and put them into files. It will categorize them based on the substance of the notes. Your electronics that you have now are smarter than anything like them on the market." Lisa said proudly, seeing how shocked Jordan and Stella were at how advanced their new electronics were.
"What should we do with our old laptops and cell phones?" Stella asked.
"Whatever you want. You don't need them. But if you want to keep them, you're more than welcome. Let me see your old cell phones. I can transfer the data from them to your new cell phones so that everything that was on the old one will be on the new one. I'll talk to you tomorrow to show you how to navigate your new stuff, though it's fairly intuitive and your Neurotech will bridge much of the difficulties you might otherwise encounter." Lisa said.
"Now, out. Lincoln has ordered me to get some sleep. And of course, nobody is allowed to disobey Lincoln." Lisa said sarcastically. Lincoln rolled his eyes. He knew Lisa would go to sleep, but was expressing her annoyance that she had to put her research on hold. She knew in her mind that it was for the best that she get some sleep. But she had been so focused on it that she couldn't bring herself to put it down. Lincoln hugged Lisa.
"It's okay to rest sometimes." Lincoln said gently, bringing Jordan and Stella out of the room.
"I still have some packing to do. I can't stay long. I can meet with you this weekend and probably again before I leave. But I don't have much time these days." Stella said. Her father was giving her a quiz each week to make sure that she was caught up on everything to do with computers. Stella assured him that she was the best amongst her friends with computers. But he said he just wanted to be sure. Stella was just humoring him.
Jordan had more free time and could see him a few times before they went away for college. But she was pretty busy too. Lincoln was also busy, mostly because of things he wanted to do before he went away, knowing that he wouldn't have much time once he did. So he wanted to spend time with each of his sisters before he left. He'd already spent time with Lucy, Lori, Leni, Luna, Lynn and Lola. He still had to spend time with Lana, Lisa and Lily. He was going to spend the day with Lily tomorrow.
"I love you ladies. I can't wait to correspond with you from college. I hope that we can keep our relationship going long-term." Lincoln said. Jordan smiled, slapping Lincoln's back again.
"Don't worry, Loud! We will." Jordan said.
"Of course we will. You're an amazing person. We'll be really happy to see you again during vacations and summer break." Stella said.
"But don't go dating any girls around campus, Loud. Just cuz we're in a poly ship doesn't mean that it's open season for any of us. Stella and I talked about it."
"We want you to stay loyal to us. And of course, we will stay loyal to just you and each other as well." Stella said. Lincoln nodded, kissing each of their hands.
"It would be my honor to have the two of you as my steady long-distance girlfriends." Lincoln said. Stella chuckled.
"Okay, Sir Lincoln." Jordan teased.
"Oh, and don't try to be a vigilante in your new city. I know you were considering it in Royal Woods. We don't want you putting yourself in danger. Plus, you should be too busy with college to spend your nights Batman-ing it up." Stella chuckled. Lincoln nodded.
"I definitely won't be a vigilante. You're right. I won't have time." Lincoln said.
"Maybe someday though, once I've graduated college and am on my own. I'll be a comic book author and illustrator by day and a vigilante by night." Lincoln joked. Jordan laughed, shoving Lincoln playfully.
"Alright then. And when you end up in the hospital with bullet wounds, don't expect us to lie for you." Jordan said. Lincoln laughed, shoving Jordan back.
"Don't worry, I'll have the very best of defensive technology. Lisa is the greatest scientist in the world. Possibly in history." Lincoln said.
"Anyway, I have to get home. Love you, Lincoln. Love you, Jordan." Stella said, kissing each of them and getting in her car, hurrying home. Jordan headed back home as well and Lincoln went upstairs to continue packing. He put the Advanced Battle Armor in one of the boxes as well, folding it like Lisa showed him so that it would fit, putting the charger for the suit in the box as well before folding up the top, putting paper around it so it wouldn't jiggle around and get damaged.
