"Inventing the Future"

"Chapter 13: Finished Product"

Construction of the first successful floating platform had taken nearly half a year to complete, and as Jaming buffed and polished the curved sides of his replacement platform to remove all traces of fingerprints and grime, he was privately amazed at how much less time it had taken him to build this one. He had finished it in just under three months, with nothing more than an incomplete stack of notes and his own memory.

This one looked a little different, though. Here he didn't have unlimited access to materials, and he had to make do with what he could find or modify on his own. With its muted shades of dark gray steel and its lack of flashy trappings, this second platform looked downright boring. And yet, somehow, Jaming was far more proud of this one, because it symbolized a new beginning.

He had done it. Neither Emperor Griffon nor Gaspard had anything to do with its completion. It had all been him.

But the question remained; would it actually work?

Jaming carefully avoided touching the button that would send his newest creation whirring to life, and he thought to himself, 'It has to.'

While he hadn't by any means been a high-ranking member of Griffon's forces, and had only seen his mysterious former boss one time, he knew plenty about what Griffon's plans were. Jaming had begun his venture into darkness by pledging to use his skills to wipe out important origin points in order to alter the future. As much as he told himself that he hadn't known what he was signing up for, this wasn't entirely true. Right from the start, he'd had a nagging doubt in the back of his mind, but he had done all he could to ignore it.

Now, having been cast adrift by Griffon with a clearer mind and a repentant heart, Jaming was still left with the horrible knowledge of what the future might hold. And maybe, just maybe, he could still do something about it and possibly redeem himself. Veniccio's future was dependent on the Shigura and the Luna Stones, and if he could use his skills to protect them instead of driving them away, he might be able to help ensure Veniccio's safety.

Or maybe he was displaying a different side of the same inventor's hubris, but in any case, he knew that he would have to try.

It would work. Of course it would. He'd gone over the notes and his own memories ad nauseam, and he could find absolutely no reason why this platform wouldn't work as well as the last one.

Well, maybe one reason. The materials he'd had to use were of a different density, and the equations he'd had to use in order to figure out the proper thickness of certain bits and bobs were mind-numbingly difficult. If just a single digit was off by one, things could still go disastrously wrong.

But if it did work...

He shook his head and stepped back to admire it, and he remembered that he was not alone in the garage. Meredith and Pau were there, and he nearly jumped when Meredith finally spoke.

"Wow...It looks amazing!"

"I take it that's a compliment?" Jaming asked, feeling uncharacteristically unsure. He wasn't used to having an audience when he tested something for the first time. If he succeeded, then all would be well. If he failed? Well...he preferred to endure that shame alone!

"You know it's a compliment," she grinned, tempted to reach out and touch the platform, but she knew he wouldn't like that.

"How are you gonna get it out of here?" asked Pau.

Jaming froze, looking horrified as if realizing he had forgotten something important, but he couldn't keep up the charade for long and he chuckled. "Press that button by the door, Pau, and you'll see."

Pau did so, looking skeptical, and he and Meredith received quite a shock when the roof actually opened up, unfolding like the petals of a flower. "Wow, neat!"

Jaming walked back over to the platform, still riding his high. "Did you think I wouldn't have planned ahead for that?"

"How should I know? Floating platforms that use sound? You have to admit, it sounds crazy if you've never heard of such a thing. No offense." Pau added.

Jaming shrugged, uncaring. He was so used to criticisms when it came to his inventions that he didn't even hear them anymore. "None taken. But I have done it before. So, statistically speaking, the odds of success should be even greater now."

Pau scratched his furry chin and asked, "Well...are you gonna start it up, or are you just gonna stare at it?"

Jaming almost told him that 'just staring at it' felt safer somehow, but he thought better of it and smiled at Meredith. "Well, what do you think? Should I?"

"Go for it," she smiled back, trying not to roll her eyes as Pau hid behind her.

"All right...here goes, in three...two..." Jaming touched his index finger to the button, drew a deep breath, then said, "one!"

He pressed the button, then backed up several paces and gestured for them to do the same. The platform sputtered to life, and from deep within came, strangely enough, the muffled cacophony of loud music, heavy on electric guitars and keyboard synthesizers. This was it.

The floor beneath them vibrated, and the platform slowly began to rise off of the garage floor, so slowly that Jaming wasn't sure at first that he wasn't imagining it. Then it was an inch off the floor. Two inches. Five inches. Moving ever closer to the night sky. It was working!

But even as Jaming breathed in to give a loud whoop of triumph, the platform began to wobble precariously and he choked on his own breath. His heart, which had been rising right along with his platform, his pride and joy, sank. The platform was beginning to spark and smoke. Slowly, dangerously, the platform began to rotate three feet off the air, wobbling more and more fiercely as it struggled to remain airborne. Jaming knew what was coming next, because this had happened before.

"No!" Jaming screamed, slamming his fist down on the button that would close the garage's roof once more. He couldn't bring himself to imagine what would happen to the people of Veniccio if the platform tore a rogue path through the town! And he'd hardly had time to turn away from the button when the platform banked sharply to the side and slammed into a wall. Then it zipped up and bounced from the ceiling. "Out, now, run! Go!"

Meredith and Pau, who had been rooted to the spot and unable to look away, jumped as they were grabbed and shoved out of the garage. Everything seemed to be happening in slow motion, and as the crashes and sounds of destruction continued for nearly fifteen seconds, the three of them stood at a safe distance away. Jaming held Meredith protectively as he watched in anguish as his creation finally sputtered its last.

Pau peeked out from behind them, his ears slowly rising once more from where they had been lying flat on his head.

Jaming loosened his grip on Meredith, unable to look at her.

"Ohhh, no..." she whispered.

Jaming took a step towards his garage.

"Jaming?" Meredith asked timidly, "Honey?"

She had never called him that before. He took another step.

Pau looked up at Meredith, and chose the exact wrong thing to say at the exact wrong moment. In an effort to lighten things up a little, he said nervously, "Well...it went out with a bang, not a whimper."

Meredith gave Pau a scowl that was full of shocked anger and sadness, and she murmured reproachfully, "He really worked hard, Pau..."

It was really Pau's words that set Jaming into motion, but it was his girlfriend's sympathy that caused something to snap within him. What was once a slow walk quickly began to pick up speed, so that by the time he reached the garage and slammed the door behind him he was almost moving along at a run. He had failed. Again. And he had done it in front of her.

Pau's ears flattened again, and at first he and Meredith thought that the platform still had some juice left over, but when the crashes were joined by a loud string of creative profanity, they realized what they were witnessing an absolute meltdown.

Pau gaped and clapped his hands over his ears, pressing the flaps against his cheeks, but Meredith simply stood, wide-eyed, and stared at the closed door.

"I'm...I'm sorry, I didn't mean to set him off like that..." Pau had to raise his voice to be heard.

Meredith sighed, wincing at the crash-tinkle of glass breaking and at Jaming's scream of 'why?', and sat down on a small boulder to wait out the storm. "It would have happened anyway, I think. This...has crushed him."

"What should we do?"

There was another loud crash, some more yelling, and Meredith rested her chin on her hand. "I think he'll be a while. Why don't you go home? I'll check on him when it's quiet."

"Meredith, I'm sorry...I didn't mean..."

"I know...go on, I'll talk to him."